AIRPARK CONSTRUCTION BEGINS; WARPLANE DISPLAY SCHEDULED TO OPEN IN FALL.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer City officials are shooting to open an airpark air·park n. A small airport typically located near a business area or industrial park. this year to salute the achievements of Air Force Plant 42. The city has begun preparatory work for the concrete pads beneath the first three aircraft and asked construction companies for bids on a combination restroom and storage building at the Heritage Airpark. The city also has lined up three more Vietnam-era warplanes to be brought in for display. ``We're looking at having it open this fall,'' said project manager Tim Hughes. ``Hopefully we'll have six or seven aircraft when it opens.'' Heritage Airpark is being established on 23 acres on the southern portion of Air Force Plant 42, adjoining Avenue P near 25th Street East. Palmdale allocated $200,000 in its 1999-2000 budget for the airpark. The city is seeking bids on a 3,500-square-foot building for storage and for public restrooms. Eventually the building will be used as a shop for restoring aircraft. The airpark is expected to be developed in phases, stretching at least through 2003. However, Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, is seeking to speed up its creation by seeking the full $4.8 million development cost for the airpark in the fiscal 2000 Veterans Affairs Veterans Affairs is a term of the business that deals with the relation between a government and its veteran communities, usually administered by the designated government agency. and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill. The outcome of that request won't be known until after the conclusion of deliberations by the conference committee that will straighten out differences between the Senate and House of Representatives versions of the bill. That likely will occur in September, said McKeon spokesman David Foy. The three additional aircraft for the airpark are a T-38 jet trainer from Hawthorne, an F-4 Phantom coming from an aircraft restoration company in Mojave, and an A-4 Skyhawk The A-4 Skyhawk was an American attack aircraft originally designed to operate from United States Navy aircraft carriers. The aircraft was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Corporation (later McDonnell Douglas) and was originally designated the A4D from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center near Ridgecrest. The first airplane to be permanently displayed at the airpark is a Vietnam War-era F-100 Super Sabre fighter jet christened the ``Spirit of Palmdale.'' The F-100 was given to the city of Palmdale by the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority after being displayed at George Air Force Base in Victorville. North American Aviation North American Aviation was a major US aircraft manufacturer. The company was responsible for a number of historic aircraft, including the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, and the X-15 rocket plane, as well as Apollo - later Rockwell International Rockwell International was the ultimate incarnation of a series of companies under the sphere of influence of Willard Rockwell, who had made his fortune after the invention and successful launch of a new bearing system for truck axles in 1919. , now Boeing - employed about 600 people on the F-100 program in Palmdale in the 1950s. Two other aircraft are at the airpark site, an F-104 and an F-105. Like the F-100, they are single-engine fighter jets built in Palmdale and flown by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and 1960s. Heritage Airpark will be an addition to the region's monuments to aerospace history that already include the Lancaster Aerospace Walk of Honor The Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, California, USA, is a continually-growing venue for honoring test pilots who have significantly contributed to aviation and space research and development. for test pilots and a flight-test museum at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. . The Blackbird blackbird, common name in North America of a perching bird allied to the bobolink, the meadow lark, the oriole, and the grackle and belonging to the family Icteridae. The European blackbird, Turdus merula, is a thrush. Airpark in Palmdale, displaying two retired SR-71 Blackbird “SR-71” redirects here. For other uses, see SR-71 (disambiguation). The Lockheed SR-71 was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed YF-12A and A-12 aircraft by the Lockheed Skunk Works. spy planes, is an annex for the Edwards museum. |
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