LANCASTER, Calif. — This is the year when the planets align over Southern California’s High Desert Aerospace Valley, declaring the region to be, “The Center of the Aerospace Testing Universe.”
That’s part of a message and request for volunteer support delivered April 13 to members of the region’s newly merged and reorganized Chambers of Commerce, representing Lancaster and Palmdale.
Accompanying the expanded mid-October 2022 Aerospace Valley Air Show at Edwards Air Force Base is a separately organized and funded companion project of the Flight Test Historical Foundation to complete and open the aerospace museum under construction just outside the west gate to Edwards Air Force Base.
Speakers representing the complimentary efforts told Chamber business leaders, the two bold initiatives will concurrently reinforce national and international branding of “Aerospace Valley” and benefit the entire regional economy, career and technical education, business, and aerospace industry growth and stability.
With this year’s restoration of an Edward AFB air show, last held in 2009, timed to coincide with the 75th Anniversary of Supersonic Flight, and of the U.S. Air Force, also in 1947, officials estimate a daily crowd numbering as many as 100,000 visitors on both Saturday and Sunday air show days at Edwards, and additional thousands of military veterans, EAFB families and media on hand for the Friday, Oct. 14 air show rehearsal and upwards of 10,000 students at a STEM Expo in Hangar 1600.
The stars of the Aerospace Valley Air Show will be the USAF Thunderbirds, precision flight demonstration team, supported by a cast of military and NASA aircraft and civilian historic and aerobatic planes.
Chase Kohler, Chief of Media Operations for the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, told his audience the Aerospace Valley Air Show needs an estimated 1,250 volunteers to support not only the air show week events from Wednesday, Oct. 12 through Monday, Oct. 17, but other pre-and-post show preparations planned or already underway.
The needed total of volunteers is inclusive for all aspects of the show. Regardless of affiliation, all volunteers should submit their information to the registration link at www.avairshow.com
Art Thompson, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Flight Test Historical Foundation, remarked that while Kitty Hawk, N.C., is revered for the first aircraft flight, “History is made every day in the Aerospace Valley. Kitty Hawk was the first. The first of everything else was started here.”
Lisa Brown, FTHF Director of Education and Community Outreach, said the new museum’s educational expansive educational center will be a worldwide crossroads for bringing together and inspiring future generations of aerospace technologists, engineers and research scientists.
Among the museum’s major attractions for researchers, educators and historians will be the Bob Hoover Research Library and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) Archives. Brown concluded, “Our mission is to elevate this Valley.”
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