Tehachapi News

Plenty of star and firepower headed to Edwards for Flight Test Nation

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Edwards Air Force Base will host its first open house and air show in three years this week to celebrate the area's renown aircraft testing history.
Flight Test Nation will include an open house and a free air show Saturday, Oct. 17, where Chuck Yeager is once again expected to break the sound barrier, this time in an F-35 aircraft.
“If you've read about it, heard about it, it probably tested out here in the desert,” Major Gen. David J. Eichorn said.
The air show will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the X-15 aircraft, and also include demonstrations from U.S. Army parachute team the Golden Knights, the F-22 Raptor aircraft and Tora! Tora! Tora! - a dramatic reenactment of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Gates open at 7 a.m. Saturday. The show is expected to run until 3 p.m.
“It's really pretty exciting,” said Tora! Tora! Tora! narrator Ken Crites. “Fire, smoke, airplanes, all over the place.”
Crites said he provides air show attendees with historically based narration as World War II-replica Japanese aircraft zoom around the base in the midst of 60 pyrotechnic explosions.
The approximately 14 minute show, which has run since 1972, is meant to honor U.S. men and women of all military branches and all conflicts, he said.
Crites said the show has been performed at Edwards Air Force Base in the past.
“It was received really well,” he said.
Since the program is not scripted - and the same lineup of aircrafts is not used every time - Crites said the presentation varies from show to show.
U.S. Army parachute team the Golden Knights, who sail into air shows and football games nationwide, will perform as well.
The Golden Knights are also used as a recruitment team for the U.S. Army, as young air show fans are often awed by their theatrics, said Joel Rowley, Golden Knights visual information specialist.
“They really are the Army's ambassadors to the public,” Rowley said. “People don't usually get to meet the soldiers. They want to meet us and know what it's like out there.”
Both the Tehachapi City Council and the Kern County board of supervisors proclaimed the week leading up to the air show “Flight Test Nation Week.”