TOURS TAKEOFF ON HISTORY AIR FORCE, NASA WELCOME VISITORS TO BASE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - For people who like the smell of jet fuel and the sound of sonic booms, Edwards Air Force Base has the right tours.

The Air Force Flight Test Center and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center offer tours for aviation enthusiasts who want to see the place where so much aviation history has been made and where history continues to be made.

``The major attraction is that so much history has happened here,'' base spokesman Dennis Shoffner said. ``Where else can you go to see so much of yesterday's Air Force and tomorrow's Air Force?''

The Air Force offers a 90-minute tour at 10 a.m. every Friday. The tour begins with a video of first flights at Edwards narrated by base historian Jim Young. Afterwards, visitors board a bus for a ``windshield'' tour - meaning people stay on the bus - of the base flight line.

There are no guarantees what visitors will see on the flight line. On previous tours, visitors got to see the sleek SR-71 Blackbird taxiing by, the new F-22 fighter returning from a flight test mission, and a Harrier jet hovering over the runway.

During one recent tour, three F-15 fighters returning from a test mission taxied by the tour bus.

``The best comment I ever had was this is better than Universal Studios,'' Shoffner said.

For reservations for the Air Force Flight Test Center tour, call [phone].

NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center offers tours twice daily, 10:15 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., Monday through Friday. The tour starts with a 10-minute video about Dryden's history followed by a walking tour of some of the center's facilities.

Visitors can see a number of aircraft on display, including the X-1E, a sister ship to the X-1 Chuck Yeager flew to break the sound barrier in 1947, an X-29 and a replica of the X-15 rocket plane.

Other historic aircraft include the plywood M2-F1, a Smithsonian artifact that was flown in the 1960s by such notable pilots as Yeager, Milt Thompson and Bill Dana. The aircraft was used in a research program that helped the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decide that space shuttles could return safely to Earth without engine power.

Another historic aircraft on display is the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, an aircraft used to simulate approach and landing conditions for Apollo moon-mission astronauts.

Visitors also get to see the gantry used for attaching space shuttles to a modified Boeing 747 for return flights to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Dryden also has a gift shop and visitor center open from 7:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is also a nearby cafeteria open to the public.

For reservations for the NASA tour call [phone] or 258-3460.

Planning and calling ahead is the best advice for both the Air Force and NASA tours. Both the Air Force and NASA ask for U.S. citizens to make their reservations at least 72 hours in advance. Foreign nationals must make their reservations at least two weeks in advance.

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Map: Edwards Air Force Base