Time Flies
This is the second cache in my Discovering the Antelope Valley series, which I’ve made in an effort to show that geocaches can be educational in regards to an area’s or people’s culture. I hope that you enjoy, and that you learn something along the way!
Anybody who's spent any extended amount of time in the Antelope Valley knows that jet fuel runs through the veins of this community, and Edwards Air Force Base is the heart that supplies this. This air base started out life as a bombing field -- AKA a plot of land with targets drawn on the dirt -- nearby the Muroc Dry Lake. As time went on, this field became known as Muroc Field, and a hotrod culture actually ended up being established long before an aviary one. The lake bed got attention from the Air Force after a big aerial maneuver practice in 1937, which lead higher up individuals to notice the amazing flatness -- and therefore possibility of making a great runway -- of it. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, several groups of airplanes with ordinance were placed at the lakebed in anticipation of further attacks, and in 1942 the field was officially made into the Muroc Army Airfield. The isolated location lead to it being a top-notch place to test top-secret technologies away from the public's -- and possible spies' -- eyes. After the war, the air field was eventually renamed Edwards Air Force Base in memory of Glen Edwards, who died the year prior in a crash during a test flight of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing -- a plane that was tested heavily during the war, and the prototype that would eventually become the staple of Edwards: the B-2 Bomber.
Since then, Edwards has been the site of many advancements in the fields of aeronautics, but possibly the most notable of all would be the testing of and involvement in the Space Shuttle program. The Space Shuttle Enterprise was tested extensively from Edwards, Columbia landed from its expedition as the first shuttle launched into orbit at Edwards, and was also the landing spot for several other less-well-known shuttles later on. It was replaced by the Kennedy Space Station in Florida as the primary landing spot for the Space Shuttles, due to the huge amount of money that it costs to transport the shuttles back to Florida from Edwards. These shuttles were actually constructed in Palmdale as well, at the old Rockwell plant, now known as Plant 42.
The influence of Edwards can be found throughout the AV as well. One example would be the monuments of planes tested and designed at Edwards at places like Antelope Valley College and the Metro station in Lancaster. Another would be the Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale. This museum/park was made to give homage to the development of one of the most technically advanced planes ever made for the US Air Force: the SR-71 Blackbird. Lockheed Martin was the company the designed this plane, and they’ve made it into one of the best reconnaissance planes to exist. A fun fact about the Blackbird is that the fuel actually leaks from the plane while it’s on the runway, due to the body having to be designed to warp so much at the amazing speeds that it reaches in flight.
If it weren’t for all of these developments in the aerospace field that have happened at Edwards and the Lockheed/Boeing/etc. plants, this valley would be a very different place. Thousands of our residents rely on jobs at these places, and the economy of the entire valley depends on their success. Even our school system has started being centralized around them, with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) academies popping up every year. Even if we may not be the prettiest valley in California, we’ll be able to thrive financially because of the efforts of the men and women who work at Edwards and these plants, and it’s their work that makes the Antelope Valley known to those who don’t have that jet fuel in their veins.