Older aircraft at Edwards AFB ???

[woodie]

Tom: It has been 13 years since you posted your information about Edwards' aircraft. I was stationed there 1963-1966 and worked on most, if not all, of the planes you mentioned. I later realized I was there at the best of times, as so many things happend during the time I was there.
The X-15 program was ongoing and the B-52 that carried it aloft was top priority for us if something went wrong, especially if the X-15 was hung under the wing.
The F-101 that was there was said to have been the first one built, but I can't say for sure. Most of the planes like it were taken care of by Civil Service employees who had been on each airplane for many years and knew their planes inside out (I'm not talking about the new planes undergoing testing but the planes that the Test Pilot School trainees flew and those planes had been there for years).
Col. Yeager crashed one of the NF-104's during that time (he was only a full-bird then).
The first B-70 landed while I was there, after having taken off from the plant down the road at Palmdale, and if I remember correctly, there was a hot brake on landing. The second plane arrived after I'd left and I am not sure which one crashed later on. North American Aviation had a special pad for the B-70 and no one except them was allowed near the plane. One day they were defueling the B-70 into a fuel truck and a flash fire happened because of static electricity and they, luckily, had put in a fire extenguishing system all around that parking pad and they activated it and it was extinguished immediately, with no damage to the plane, but seems like the fuel truck looked like it was singed. Not sure about the guy up on the truck.
The Hughes Co. used a B-58 for testing, what they told us, was "the most powerful radar known to man" and we were told to get well away from the taxiway if it was coming by and had a flashing red light going under its nose. I never heard what aircraft the radar was later to be used on.
They flew a U-2 at that time also, and kept it in a hangar way out of the far end of the field. One of the pilots and his wife was in our square dance club on base. His wife said he was not allowed to tell he where he flew.
There was an old ragged F-100 that stayed at the base in El Centro, CA, and it occasionally flew in for maintenance. They also had one old C-130 that they used just to carry fire trucks to certain dry lakes before the X-15 was to fly, in case they had to land the X-15 on one of those dry lakes.
The Test Center's B-58 was in use at that time and I remember its hydraulic fluid was Orinite (sp?) that would tolerate high temperature, an amber colored fluid, and we had to take a fluid sample before conneciting the hydraulic test stand (mule) to it and put it under a microscope and count the particles. If we found over a certain number of particles on the test strip, we had to connect the "mule's" hydraulic hose to the filter on the side of the "mule" and run it for a while and then take another sample until it passed the test before we connected the hoses to the plane. It was very close tolerance and its system had to be extra clean. If the panel was off under the wing's "mixing box", where all the flight control linkage came together, and the control column in the cockpit was moved, all sorts of movement took place, like worms working.
One time a civilian company had a "Pregnant Guppy" in our big hangar, reworking the skin on its front, above the cockpi, when the skin tore loose in flight. They had scaffolds way up high doing the repair for several weeks.
The C-141 and F-5 were being tested, as well as the civilian 727. They were testing the CH-47 and F-111 at that time also.
Northrop was testing a B-66 with a laminar flow wing and a contractor was doing tilt wing testng on a former glider (maybe a a C-122?). Its wing tilted vertically using a bulldozer hydraulic cylinder inside the cargo area to rotate the wing. I don't recall engines on the wing and I don't know why they were doing the testing because they had already brought in the tilt wing XC-142 for testing Also, there were tests going on to test airplanes for SE Asia. They had a company that tested a T-28 with a turboprop engine, On-Mark was testing the B-26K, and there was testing going on with the AT-37. I don't think the Air Force bought the turboprop T-28.
Then, there was the Blackbird testing. Pres. Johnson announced about it on TV one Saturday morning, saying it was landing at Edwards as he was speaking. They told us Monday morning to turn our head when it taxied by, it was so secret. In a couple of weeks, they put on a demonstration for the Los Angeles news people and they allowed us to see it take off. It went a little ways down the runway and went straight up like a rocket until it was out of sight. End of demonstration.
They had a large airshow during my time there and a lot of unusual aircraft were displayed, including a Ryan vertical takeoff fighter type plane that later crashed and killed the pilot.
They brought in a C-133 to test and see why some had crashed on takeoff, the only C-133 I had ever seen.
Like I said, I was there at the best of times.

Al

[woodie]

Sorry. Double post

Last edited by woodie on Thu Dec 15, 2022 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[woodie]

Oops- Double post. Please remove one.
Al

[Xray]

Cool recollections woodie - If you wrote a book I do believe I would buy it.

[Hooligan2]

Echo Xray ( ) fabulous post Woodie, cheers!

Wish I had been born twenty years or so earlier and could have enjoyed seeing and hearing more of these fabulous machines. Modern aircraft are very clever but bloody boring.

[JohnB]

The tilt wing aircraft you're referring to was the Hiller X-18.
It had the fuselage from a YC-122.

The YC-122s were actually used by the USAF. My father flew them for a period. I can't recall the base but somewhere in the Southeast.
If there is a C-122 fan out there who would like to know the dates and location, I can get out his monthly flying hour report book and look it up.

In the 1990s, I worked at Air Force Material Command HQ at Wright-Patterson. The MAJCOM commander was General Ron Yates, a former test pilot.
I went into his office with my boss to brief him on something and behind his desk was a nice painting of an NF-104. It seems in his test pilot days, he flew them at Edwards. Probably was a captain when Yeager was a colonel.
He was still very much a fighter guy. Once I flew with him in a C-21. Arriving over WP, he did a proper fighter brake before landing.
I recall the wing tip tanks flexing as he pulled some Gs.
So yes, you really can fly a Lear like a fighter.

[Noha307]

The F-101 that was there was said to have been the first one built, but I can't say for sure.

The first F-101 was 53-2418 and it apparently spent most of its days as a testbed for General Electric.[1]

Col. Yeager crashed one of the NF-104's during that time (he was only a full-bird then).

This was the third NF-104, 56-0762.[2]

The Hughes Co. used a B-58 for testing, what they told us, was "the most powerful radar known to man" and we were told to get well away from the taxiway if it was coming by and had a flashing red light going under its nose. I never heard what aircraft the radar was later to be used on.

This was 55-0665 with the AN/ASG-18 radar.[3]

The C-141

This may have been 61-2779.[4]

F-111

This could have been one of five or six aircraft: 63-9771, 63-9777, 63-9778, 67-0115, and/or 63-9778.[5]

Northrop was testing a B-66 with a laminar flow wing

This was the Northrop X-21 and there were actually two of them. The serial numbers were: 55-408 and 55-410.[6]

They had a company that tested a T-28 with a turboprop engine, On-Mark was testing the B-26K, and there was testing going on with the AT-37. I don't think the Air Force bought the turboprop T-28.

The YAT-28E, 51-3788, had a YT-55L-9 turboprop.[7]

They had a large airshow during my time there and a lot of unusual aircraft were displayed, including a Ryan vertical takeoff fighter type plane that later crashed and killed the pilot.

Major David H. Tittle was killed when he ejected from a Ryan XV-5 Vertifan at low altitude on 5 October 1966.[8]

[woodie]

It has been almost 60 years since Col. Yeager crashed the NF-104 and and my memory might not be correct on some things after all these years but I do remember they brought in the hydraulic flight control components from that plane for us to bench check. I don't believe there was anything brought in from the aileron hydraulic controls because, if I remember correctly, the F-104 aileron hydraulic cylinders (10 on each wing) were rececessed into the rear of the wing at the aileron hinge area and the aileron had to be removed to repack the cylinders. We would repack all of them if one leaked while the aileron was off the wing and I suppose that area is not removable but I can't recall. While we were testing the components, Col. Yeager came in and asked me if we had found anything and I told him no. He replied that he didn't think we would find any problems and I assumed he pretty well knew what caused the crash. He was in his dress blues and I noticed burn marks on the back of his neck but he seemed to be OK otherwise.

[ZRX61]

That C123 that out in the boonies at Edwards allegedly has a somewhat clandestine history. The story I heard was it was fresh out of overhaul with new engines etc & about to be put back to work when another one (54-679) got shot down somewhere it wasn't supposed to be (Oct '86). That lead to some CYA shenanigans & it got parked out at Edwards before any awkward questions were asked.
However

The authenticity of the story seems to be complete BS, but I heard it from someone who was looking at buying it, so may have been trying to create some history for it... & the Baugher database doesn't say anything at all like that:

To MASDC as CP089 9/27/1982. Stored at Hemet, CA (noted May 1988)
To civilian registry as N4034L. Sale reported Sep 15, 1989, registration cancelled Apr 1, 2013.
Now stored at Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, Edwards AFB, CA.
N4034L cancelled Apr 1, 2013. For sale by GSA Auctions at Edwards AFB, CA, Jan 21 2016
It's still sitting out at Edwards.

So that leaves a window between '82 & '88... But disproves the claim it was parked out at Edwards in '86