PILOTS' HONORS FIVE AVIATORS RECOGNIZED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO AEROSPACE.Byline: Daily News LANCASTER - Five men were inducted into Lancaster's 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. , which commemorates test pilots with ties to 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. who have made outstanding contributions to aerospace. The five plaques unveiled Saturday during an aviation-theme downtown street festival brought the walk's total to 80 pilots. This is the walk's 16th year. This year's inductees are John ``Jack'' Allavie, Wallace ``Wally'' Lien, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Wilbert ``Doug'' Pearson, Edward Schneider and Richard ``Dick'' Thomas. Lien died in 1994. The other four were all present for the ceremony. Allavie's career included working as both a military and civilian test pilot. At Edwards, Allavie flew the B-52 mother ship on 90 of the first 110 X-15 rocket plane rocket plane n. 1. An aircraft powered by one or more rocket engines. 2. An aircraft designed to carry and launch rockets. test flights. After retiring from the Air Force, Allavie joined Douglas Aircraft Co. as an engineering test pilot. At Douglas, Allavie worked on the flight test programs of the DC-8, DC-9 and DC-10 jetliners. Lien was an Army Air Force test pilot who flew the nation's earliest jets when Edwards was called Muroc. In the fall of 1943, he completed the first military performance tests of the Bell YP-59A. A few months later, Lien became the first military pilot to fly the Lockheed XP-80 jet fighter Jet fighter may refer to:
Pearson made history in a 1985 test mission when he fired a missile from an F-15 fighter and destroyed a satellite in low Earth orbit (communications) low earth orbit - (LEO) The kind of orbit used by communications satellites that will offer high bandwidth for video on demand, television, and Internet communications. , the first and only time that has been done. Pearson became Air Force Flight Test Center commander at Edwards before retiring from the Air Force. Schneider flew for the Navy from 1968 to 1983, then joined NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. . At Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. at Edwards, Schneider flew the SR-71 in high speed research, an F-18 with an ``aeroelastic'' wing, and other craft. Thomas logged more than 35 years in development and flight testing of military aircraft, most of that time while employed by Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. . Thomas made the first flight of the secret Tacit Blue aircraft in 1982. The aircraft tested stealth technology. CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Inductees included, from left, Richard Thomas, John Allavie, Edward Schneider and Air Force Maj. Gen. Wilbert Pearson. (2 -- 3 -- color) Above, Mycah, 3, sits in the cockpit of a Bearhawk plane at the aerospace street festival in Lancaster on Saturday.Members of the Boulevard Knights perform at the Aerospace Walk of Honor's aviation-theme downtown street festival. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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