Illyngophobites or Acrophobites beware! Traditional Cache

Some History from an Air Force Historian and Ask Alice from the San Diego Reader:
It is the remains of the old Whirl Tower used for parachute testing. A heavy motor in a pear-shaped pit would turn a belt that would twist a tall vertical shaft. A teardrop shaped vehicle at the end of a tether would be whirled horizontally until a desired speed was reached, whereupon a test parachute would be deployed and its forces measured. It was used for ejection seat chutes, nylon retarding chutes used on bombs, and big paradeployment chutes used to drag cargo out of C-130s. Several world records were set there. The Navy built it in the 1960s and abandoned it soon after, when it didn't work properly. It's under the jurisdiction of the Navy base at China Lake.