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Family holiday to Las Vegas 24 July - 8th August 2008  Dave & Matty Anderson  Page 3

Edwards Air Force Base,CA Friday 1 August 2008

Edwards is a huge base, shared with NASA who have an area named Dryden within the Edwards complex, with over 62 miles of runway this gives you an idea of just how big the place is. We entered via the West gate and our meeting point was at the aircraft display named the Century Circle, these are the only aircraft visible from the outside of the base. Tours are available 1st Friday of every month and must be booked in advance.

Once through the gate we drove for another 6 miles to the Air Force Flight Test Centre museum, the following were noted here

Inside there is a gift shop and a few aircraft on display and a large collection of models of all types tested at Edwards.

On to the NASA Dryden research Centre on the Eastern side of the main complex, a nice display of old types was outside the main buildings

Our guide took us into the main hangar and then into what was the old Blackbird hangar to see the two Global Hawks, photo's were allowed of all aircraft inside but not out on the ramp (only the two 747's were on their ramp). Global Hawk 95-2001 the first built is officially NASA 871 though it was still in full USAF marks and did not carry NASA 871.

A small storage building (4823) was opened up and contained the following

Following lunch in the NASA cafe and a look around the NASA gift shop our guide took us along the flight line, again no photo's were allowed or binoculars but a bit of discretion allowed a number of jets to be read off.

An unidentified CH-53 coded "26" was on the USMC ramp, another C17 was seen in a hangar along with a C130J and a C130H. An all white F15 and a camo T38 were parked next to the speckled trout C135 and may have been stored. We did see a white 747 flying low over the base, too far away to identify, the AL-1 laser aircraft was there the day before but we couldn't be a 100% this was it, but it does fit the bill.  Our guide did say the F35 was due within the next two weeks. One of the main twin runways was being resurfaced so most of the heavy aircraft were on the main ramp, thi is not normally the case.

Mojave,CA Friday 1 August 2008

The Edwards trip lasted until 2.30pm and although photo's of the ramp would have been excellent, it was still worth the visit. Not far away was Mojave, we arrived at 3pm and booked onto the 30 minute bus trip around the field ($5 each) the following list is comprehensive and only contains a few gaps, if there were any other airliners in store here they were well hidden! a few cockpit sections were littered around but nothing else to note.

Entrance to the airport

The following were seen on the main airport side.

The following were seen on the far side (storage / scrapping )

Henderson Exec, NV  Friday 1 August 2008

It was around 7.30pm when we arrived back home from the trip, not before a quick call into Henderson, it's right alongside the road.

Las Vegas McCarran Saturday 2nd August 2008

We were heading down to the strip for the day, so a quick ride by produced the following, an unidentified Omni 757 was parked up. The two Swedish Herc's were probably in connection with the Gripen's return home from Red Flag at Nellis. The serial of the second Marine Corps Hornet was obscured by the first, confirmation required.

Las Vegas McCarran Sunday 3rd August 2008

A nice relaxing day by the pool was finished off with a trip down the strip for a nice meal at Maggiano's, a superb Italian restaurant (the Cannelloni is to die for), anyway had the usual drive by on our way, the two Swedish Hercules' and the Marine Corp Hornets had left to be replaced by a single Canadian Air Force Hornet, and not too much in the way of new biz jets, though the Mexican Falcon 20 was a nice sight.

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