MUGU TO OBSERVE 50TH ANNIVERSARY WITH AIR SHOW : BLUE ANGELS TO HIGHLIGHT EVENT.Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer The Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center The Naval Air Warfare Center was a former U.S. Navy military installation located in Warminster, Pennsylvania and Ivyland, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Navy purchased the grounds to establish this facility from the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation following its bankruptcy in the will celebrate its 50th anniversary today and Sunday with an event that has become the base's biggest claim to fame - the annual Air Show. The free event will feature performances by the Blue Angels flight team, the Black Sheep black sheep n. 1. A sheep with black fleece. 2. A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable or disreputable. show team and the Channel Islands Air National Guard, among others. ``It's Point Mugu's 50 anniversary, and the Blue Angels' 50th anniversary, so we're anticipating a record crowd,'' said Cora Fields, a spokeswoman for the base. The last time the Blue Angels appeared, in 1993, the air show drew 100,000 visitors each day, said Fields. ``When the Blue Angels fly, everyone comes.'' Gates open at 8 a.m. with planes taking off at 9:30 a.m. The Blue Angels perform at 3 p.m. and a stealth fighter will take off at 2 p.m. The public is invited to bring blankets and lawn chairs for open-air seating. Fixed seating is $5 per person. To get to the base, take the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. north to the Los Posas Road exit. Parking lots have been established with shuttle service to the show. Grayson Merrill, a retired naval commander, remembers when the base was little more than a lagoon and a stretch of deserted beach. Merrill was a member of the Bureau of Aeronautics The Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) was the U.S. Navy's material-support organization for Naval Aviation from 1921 to 1959. The bureau had "cognizance" (i.e., responsibility) for the design, procurement, and support of Naval aircraft and related systems. and helped search for a site where the Navy could test experimental radio-controlled aircraft and missiles. Pt. Mugu was chosen from a list of 15 other sites across the country. ``It was a primitive place,'' he said. ``But it had everything we were looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. .'' With a nod from President Truman and $50 million from Congress, the base was established Oct. 1, 1946. Technology developed at Pt. Mugu has saved it from going the way of military bases closed in the last five years of downsizing (1) Converting mainframe and mini-based systems to client/server LANs. (2) To reduce equipment and associated costs by switching to a less-expensive system. (jargon) downsizing , Merrill said. Early guided missiles like the Assault Drone - a radio-controlled aircraft with a camera mounted on the nose - have given way to weapons like the Tomahawk tomahawk [from an Algonquian dialect of Virginia], hatchet generally used by Native North Americans as a hand weapon and as a missile. The earliest tomahawks were made of stone, with one edge or two edges sharpened (sometimes the stone was globe shaped). missile, which can follow the contours of the earth to specific targets more than 200 miles away. ``When I saw footage of the Tomahawk used in Iraq, I felt like that was Pt. Mugu's report card,'' Merrill said. ``That kind of precision is what we were shooting for all along.'' |
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