Mojave Airport & Spaceport

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Mojave spaceport

Mojave Airport, storage location for commercial airliners.

SpaceShipOne landing at Mojave after June 21, 2004 space flight

The Mojave Airport & Spaceport (IATA: MHV, ICAO: KMHV), also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Center, is located in Mojave, California, at an elevation of 2,791 feet (851 m). It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17, 2004. It is the only spaceport from which there have been privately-funded human spaceflights.

Activities

Besides being a general-use public airport, Mojave has three main areas of activity, flight testing, space industry development, and aircraft heavy maintenance and storage.

Flight testing

Flight testing activities have been centered at Mojave since the early 1970s, due to the lack of populated areas surrounding the airport. It is also favored for this purpose due to its proximity to the Edwards Air Force Base, where the airspace is restricted from ground level to an unlimited height, and where there is a supersonic corridor. Mojave is also the home of the National Test Pilot School

Space industry development

Beginning with the Rotary Rocket program, Mojave became a focus for small companies seeking a place to develop space access technologies. Mojave Spaceport has been a test site for several teams in the Ansari X Prize, most notably SpaceShipOne, which conducted the first privately funded human sub-orbital flight on June 21, 2004. Other groups based at the Mojave Spaceport include XCOR Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, Orbital Sciences Corporation, and Interorbital Systems.

On December 6, 2007, the Antelope Valley Press reported that Mojave Spaceport was in danger of losing the "spaceport" designation by the end of 2007. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave notice to spaceport officials of its intention to suspend or revoke the space launch site operator's license on December 31. The FAA's actions are a result of concerns of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation regarding the storage and handling of the related chemicals and explosives at the airport.^[1]

Aircraft heavy maintenance and storage

The Mojave airport is also known as a storage location for commercial airliners. Numerous large Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, and Airbus aircraft owned by major airlines are stored at Mojave. Some aircraft reach the end of their useful lifetime and are scrapped at Mojave, while others are refurbished and returned to active service.

History

The Mojave Airport was first opened in 1935 as a small, rural airfield serving the local gold and silver mining industry.

In July, 1942, the U.S. Marine Corps took over the field and vastly expanded it as the Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station (MCAAS) Mojave. Many of the Corps' World War II aces received their gunnery training at Mojave. With the end of World War II, MCAAS was disestablished in 1946, and became instead a U.S. Navy airfield. At the end of 1953, the USMC reopened MCAAS Mojave as an auxiliary field to MCAS El Toro.

In 1961, after the USMC transferred operations to MCAS El Centro, Kern County obtained title to the airport. In February, 1972, the East Kern Airport District was formed to administer the airport; EKAD maintains the airport to this day. To a great extent EKAD was the brainchild of Dan Sabovich who heavily lobbied the state for the airport district's creation and ran EKAD until 2002.

First flights and significant events

• July 1, 1942 - Construction begins on Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station at Mojave.^[2]
• July 31, 1944 - USMC Capt. Edward Shaw, a decorated World War II ace, was killed while test-flying an F4U Corsair^[3][4]
• February 7, 1946 - MCAAS disestablished.^[2]
• December 31, 1953 - MCAAS Mojave re-established.^[2]
• May 21, 1975 - First flight of the Rutan VariEze
• June 30, 1978 - First flight of the Rutan Defiant
• June 12, 1979 - First flight of the prototype of the Rutan Long-EZ
• April 3, 1980 - First prototype Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed in the Mojave desert, killing one of the pilots; flight test program was operating from Mojave at the time.
• September 25, 1981 - National Test Pilot School opens
• August 23, 1983 - First flight of the Boeing Skyfox
• August 29, 1983 - First flight of Beech/Scaled Composites Model 115 Starship
• January 7, 1986 - Voyager homecoming, after round-the-world record flight.^[5]
• July 12, 1988 - First flight of the Scaled Composites Triumph
• February 19, 1990 - First flight of the Scaled Composites ARES
• July 26, 1998 - First flight of the Scaled Composites Proteus
• March 1, 1999 - Rollout of the Rotary Rocket Roton ATV.
• July 28, 1999 - First flight of the Roton ATV.
• October 12, 1999 - third, final and longest flight of Roton ATV.
• October 8, 2000 - First firing of an XCOR Aerospace LOX-powered rocket engine.^[6]
• July 21, 2001 - First flight of the XCOR EZ-Rocket, flown by Dick Rutan (single-engine configuration).^[6]
• October 6, 2001 - First flight of a twin engine rocket plane, again the XCOR EZ-rocket.^[6]
• May 31, 2002 - First flight of the Toyota TAA-1, built by Scaled Composites.^[7]
• July 24, 2002 - First touch-and-go of a rocket powered aircraft, the XCOR EZ-Rocket (world record).^[6]
• August 1, 2002 - First flight of Scaled Composites White Knight
• September 18, 2002 - First flight of world's largest jet engine, GE90-115B on GE's Boeing 747 testbed aircraft.^[7]
• May 20, 2003 - First captive flight, unmanned, of SpaceShipOne
• July 29, 2003 - First manned captive flight of SpaceShipOne
• August 7, 2003 - First free-flight of SpaceShipOne
• December 17, 2003 - First powered flight of SpaceShipOne, on 100th anniversary of powered flight by the Wright Brothers.
• March 5, 2004 - First flight of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer^[8]
• June 17, 2004 - Mojave designated a Spaceport by the FAA.
• June 21, 2004 - SpaceShipOne flight 15P, the first spaceflight of SpaceShipOne.
• September 29, 2004 - First Ansari X Prize flight of SpaceShipOne.
• October 4, 2004 - X-Prize-winning flight of SpaceShipOne.
• June 21, 2005 - First captive flight of Boeing X-37 under Scaled Composites White Knight
• December 3, 2005 - First departure of a rocket-powered aircraft on a point-to-point flight (XCOR EZ-Rocket, departed MHV for California City, flown by Dick Rutan).^[9]
• December 15, 2005 - First arrival of a rocket-powered aircraft on a flight originating at another airport (XCOR EZ-Rocket return flight from California City, piloted by Rick Searfoss).^[9]
• April 7, 2006 - First free flight of Boeing X-37 (take-off from Mojave, landing at Edwards)
• January 23, 2007 - First flight of the Lockheed CATBird
• July 26, 2007 - Explosion with at least three fatalities at Scaled Composites facility.^[10]
• January, 2008 - An Air Canada aircraft registered as C-GAUN, was stationed at Mojave. The aircraft was known as the "Gimli Glider", because of an incident the Boeing 767 had in 1983, when it was forced to make a landing without its engines, and without fuel. Air Canada Flight 143 made an emergency landing at Gimli field, just 20 miles from Winnipeg.

Notable flight test programs to use the Civilian Aerospace Test Center

• Boeing X-37
• Eclipse 500 (crosswind landing data)
• General Electric CF34
• General Electric GE90
• Lockheed CATBird (post modification and systems flight test)
• Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (crosswind landing data)
• Lockheed Martin VH-71 Kestrel
• McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30^[11]
• Air Tractor 401 modified with an Orenda Aerospace OE600 engine (certification flight test program}^[12]
• Rotary Rocket
• Scaled Composites White Knight and SpaceShipOne
• Sino Swearingen SJ30-2 (envelope expansion, flutter, stability & control, crosswind takeoffs & landings)^[13]
• Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer
• Adaptive Compliant Wing developed by FlexSys Inc flight tested on White Knight.^[14][15]

World records set at Mojave

• FAI Class C-1 Group 3, turbojet, Speed over Recognised Course: Mojave to Gander, Newfoundland, Canadair Challenger CL601 N601TG piloted by Aziz Ojjeh, 816.48 km/hr July 24, 1984.^[16]
• FAI Class C-1b Group 1, Landplanes: take off weight 500 to 1000 kg with internal combustion engine, speed over a closed circuit of 2,000 km without payload. Rutan Catbird N187RA piloted by Dick Rutan, 401.46 km/hr, January 29, 1994.^[17]
• FAI Class C-1c Group 1, Landplanes: take off weight 1000 to 1750 kg with internal combustion engine, speed over a closed circuit of 2,000 km without payload. Rutan Catbird N187RA piloted by Mike Melvill, 413.78 km/hr, March 2, 1994.^[18]

Notable pilots and engineers based at Mojave

• Brian Binnie
• Fitzhugh L. Fulton
• Mike Melvill
• Burt Rutan
• Dick Rutan
• Richard A. Searfoss
• Doug Shane
• Peter Siebold

Movie/television location credits

Due to the Mojave Spaceport's unique location and facilities, a number of movies, TV shows and commercials have been filmed on location here. The Airport Administration actively promotes the facility as a set. The airport has facilities dedicated for filming, a large supply of aircraft to use as props and two large film pads that can be flooded for water scenes. Action movies and car commercials make up the bulk of the filming at the airport.

Movie credits include:

• Die Hard 2
• Dragnet
• Executive Decision
• Flags of Our Fathers
• Flightplan
• Hot Shots
• MacArthur
• Mojave Magic: A Turtle's Eye View of SpaceShipOne
• The Rookie
• Spartan
• Speed (Specifically, the exploding airliner)
• S.W.A.T.
• Thirteen Days
• Tuskegee Airmen
• Waterworld

TV Show credits include:

• Alias
• Airwolf
• Boom
• Fear Factor
• JAG
• Man vs. Beast
• MythBusters
• The Rebel Billionaire
• S Club 7
• The Stand
• Stunt Junkies
• 24

Other credits:

• The Automatic - "Steve McQueen" music video.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mojave Airport & Spaceport

• Official site.
• Encyclopedia Astronautica entry.
• Mojave Transportation Museum's Virtual Museum web site
• Listing of aircraft wrecks in the Mojave area, including many from World War II
• Airliners.net Mojave airport photos
• FAA Airport Master Record for MHV (Form 5010 PDF)
• FAA Airport Diagram(PDF), effective 31 July 2008
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KMHV
  • ASN accident history for MHV
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KMHV

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