HANGAR TO HOUSE EXPERIMENTAL FLIGHT TEST ARTIFACTS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

A $330,000 hangar intended to guard and preserve artifacts of experimental flight test history is going up at Edwards Air Force Base.

Financed by private donations, the 12,000-square-foot hangar being built on the corner of Lancaster and Rosamond boulevards will first be used as a collection and storage hangar, and eventually turned into a museum.

The Flight Test Historical Foundation, which raised the money for the project, hopes to have the building ready to store artifacts in by August.

``This facility is to be used to authenticate, preserve and guard the pieces of experimental flight test,'' said retired Brig. Gen. Robert Cardenas, chairman of the foundation's board. ``We have to be the guardians of the heritage of experimental flight test.''

Initially the building will be used to store such items as a crew escape module from a B-1 bomber, wind tunnels and jet engines. Eventually, it will replace the foundation's storefront museum in the base housing area.

Plans call for putting in a research library, a gift shop, a small theater for videos and movies, and exhibits. That work will be done on a ``self-help'' basis as volunteer labor, materials and money allow, said Doug Nelson, museum curator.

Plans also call for placing aircraft on display along a road that will be built around the hangar. Seven aircraft, including F-84 and F-104 fighters and B-52 and F-111 bombers, are already in place at the intersection in the Jimmy Doolittle Airpark.

Eventually, the foundation wants to have 60,000 square feet of museum space at the site. The foundation is looking to raise $7.5 million for construction and for exhibits.

The foundation has approximately $2.1 million in donations and pledges. The foundation recently sent out 200 letters to aerospace corporations seeking donations, said Greg Kennedy, the foundation's executive director.

The next step will be to solicit funds from foundations that make grants to educational facilities, Kennedy said.

An interim museum, established in a former dime store, opened in 1994. The 2,400-square-foot museum draws about 12,000 visitors annually.

Located at the intersection of two major boulevards, the hangar is expected to draw in more visitors than the interim museum, located in an area seldom seen by base visitors and widely separated from the foundation's aircraft display.