A.F. SHOW TO FEATURE PAST, PRESENT CRAFT ON WEEKEND.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Tens of thousands of visitors are expected this weekend to watch aircraft from the U.S. Air Force's past, present and future.

World War II-era fighters and a bomber will fly at Edwards Air Force Base's two-day open house along with a stealthy supersonic F/A-22 Raptor, a remote-controlled Predator spy plane, and a tilt-rotor CV-22 Osprey that takes off like a helicopter but flies like an airplane.

``We've got everything, from vintage aircraft all the way to the most current aircraft available,'' Edwards spokesman Chris Ball said.

Gates will open at 7 a.m. and flying demonstrations will start at 10 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday. The flying concludes about 4:45 p.m. both days.

This is Edwards' first air show in two years. Last year's open house was canceled because of tight budgets and base personnel's heavy workloads, since organizing and conducting the event requires thousands of man-hours in addition to regular duties.

Some 175,000 to 200,000 visitors are expected over both days, about usual for recent open houses.

However, base officials are asking visitors to carpool with family and friends if possible because last week's thunderstorms left water on Rogers Dry Lake, which was to be used for parking.

Reducing the number of cars means visitors won't have to park as far from the flightline and waits to get into parking areas won't be as long, Ball said.

``Our intent was originally to park on the lake bed. That was plan A. We've got a Plan B,'' Ball said. ``There's lots of room. We want to save some space by having people carpool.''

Among the aerial performances will be one by retired Brig. Gen. Charles ``Chuck'' Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, flying a P-51 Mustang like the ones he flew during World War II.

Yeager's Mustang will be in the air with an F/A-22 Raptor, the Air Force's latest air-superiority fighter.

Other past-present pairs will be a B-1 bomber and a World War II-era B-25, a P-38 Lightning with an F-16, and two Korean War-era jets, a Soviet MiG-15 and an American F-86 Sabre.

The sonic boom that traditionally opens the flying portion of the event will be flown on both days by retired Maj. Gen. Joe Engle, a former X-15 rocket plane pilot and a former space shuttle astronaut.

The open house will have about one mile of aircraft displays. Among them will be aircraft representing the Air Force's future, including the X-45A, a forerunner of a future unmanned combat craft; the Osprey tilt-rotor transport; and the Global Hawk reconnaissance aircraft, a robot plane used over Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among the highlights will be ``Tora Tora Tora,'' a pyrotechnic show using vintage World War II aircraft to re-enact the Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor.

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center will participate in the flying demonstrations with four NASA aircraft - a modified F-15B, an F/A-18 jet, a T-34, and an ER-2, a civilian environmental research version of the U-2 spy plane.

Dryden aircraft on display will include the B-52B ``mothership'' used to launch research aircraft, including the X-15 rocket planes and, more recently, the record-setting X-43 scramjet and the Apollo-era Lunar Lander Research Vehicle. A full-scale mock-up of the X-43 and replicas of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars rovers will also be on display.

The Army precision parachute team the Golden Knights will make two performances each day of the open house.

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The supersonic F/A-22 Raptor is one of many planes that will fly this weekend at Edwards Air Force Base's air show, which is expected to lure tens of thousands of visitors.

Lockheed Martin

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