Free Republic

Employment at Air Force Plant 42 and its adjacent defense contractor facilities appears to have decreased slightly in the first six months of 2008, but two of the major contractors are hiring. For the first time in several years, the figures released by Plant 42 officials included the employment numbers for the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Center. The center employs approximately 500 people, including controllers, technicians and the like, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. Including the FAA center, employment over the first six months of the year was 6,858 people, compared to 6,412 people during the last six...

It may not be apparent from the outside, but activity at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics' facility in Palmdale is increasing. With work on the F-22 and F-35 fighters ramping up, the company is seeking some 100 experienced hourly employees for positions such as mechanics, machinists and composite technicians, said Lockheed spokeswoman Dianne Knippel. The hirings come despite the retirement of the F-117 stealth fighter, the last of which left Palmdale for storage in Nevada on Aug. 11. During the course of the fighter's nearly 30-year history, Lockheed's Palmdale site was home to modifications and upgrades to the fleet, as well as...

Giant shape-shifting robots invaded the Antelope Valley this week as a production crew for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" shot scenes for the action sequel at a Palmdale quarry. The crew arrived Monday and was slated to stay through today, filming at Service Rock Quarry, at Palmdale Boulevard and 75th Street East, and at Antelope Valley Aggregate on Avenue T in Littlerock. The quarry is doubling as an excavation site in an action sequence featuring a helicopter, pyrotechnic explosions, wind machines, debris and gunfire. "Transformers" crew members are occupying a large base camp with rows of trailers, trucks and cars,...

EDWARDS AFB - Engineers at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center are testing extremely small sensors - about the diameter of a human hair - to monitor changes in an airplane wing's shape during flight, hoping to harness the information to improve aircraft efficiency and safety by controlling the changes. "We want to be able to change the shape of a wing," said Lance Richards, Dryden's Advanced Structures and Measurement group lead. "The first step in changing the shape of a wing is knowing the shape." The fiber-optic sensors, unlike traditional sensors and strain gauges, are extremely lightweight and are small...

The Air Force is preparing to test an unmanned spacecraft in orbit, with a launch scheduled for December. The X-37B is designed to perform long-duration testing in low-Earth orbit of new technologies. The unmanned vehicle will carry experiments into space, then return with them to Earth. The vehicle... operates autonomously in orbit and for re-entry and landing. This first orbital flight test of the vehicle will be used to determine the capabilities of the craft, said an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Brown. It is part of a former NASA program that was cut as the space agency focused...

MOJAVE - Nearly four years after British mogul Sir Richard Branson announced he intended to fly paying passengers into space, the first step in a new era of commercial space travel was unveiled Monday at the Mojave Air and Space Port. WhiteKnightTwo, the prototype mothership for Virgin Galactic commercial passenger spaceline, was revealed before international media, aerospace enthusiasts and assorted dignitaries. "This is quite something, isn't it?" Branson, the Virgin Group founder, asked those gathered, calling WhiteKnightTwo "one of the most beautiful and extraordinary aviation vehicles ever developed." Designed and built by Scaled Composites, the Mojave firm founded by aviation...

MOJAVE - The much-anticipated debut of the next step toward sending private citizens into space will take place Monday at the Mojave Air and Space Port, the same site where the first small steps in that direction were made four years ago. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft will roll out of the Scaled Composites hangar before an invitation-only crowd of international media, officials and those who have already purchased their $200,000 tickets for a ride into space. The first of Virgin Galactic spaceline's hardware to debut, WhiteKnightTwo is the much larger successor to the White Knight which air-launched SpaceShipOne to three...

MOJAVE - The typical sounds of jet and piston airplane engines at the Mojave Air and Space Port have been joined in recent weeks by a different kind of flightline noise: the roar and sudden quiet of a rocket engine. XCOR Aerospace has performed a series of flight tests of its second-generation rocket plane designed for the Rocket Racing League, demonstrating its capability to start and stop the engine as well as the airframe's aerobatic potential. The most recent aerial demonstration took place Thursday afternoon. The airplane, a modified Velocity Aircraft kit airplane with a liquid oxygen- and kerosene-fueled rocket...

While many people in the Antelope Valley will spend the Fourth of July celebrating their independence with barbecues, beer, music and cheer, some members of the Blue Star Mothers will think of their sons and daughters still fighting for freedom overseas. Blue Star Mothers of America Inc. is a nonprofit organization with chapters throughout the nation comprising women whose children are serving or have served in the military. Members offer each other emotional support and support the troops by sending cards, letters and care packages filled with snack foods, toiletries and sometimes items such as paperback books or a deck...

EDWARDS AFB - Encompassing 301,000 acres of desert land, the vast reaches of Edwards Air Force Base are a treasure trove for much more than its well-known cutting-edge aviation history. Although many are fluent in the historic milestones achieved in the skies over the storied base, fewer are familiar with the history on its grounds. "People have been occupying this area for 10,000 years," said Kathleen Loetzerich , an environmental resource specialist with the base's Environmental Management office. Loetzerich presented some of the base's little-known history Monday as part of a tour for 20 members of the Edwards Civilian-Military Support...

PALMDALE - A stubby, star-spangled spacecraft made history in June 2004 in the skies over Mojave as the first privately funded manned space program. The story of SpaceShipOne and the people behind its success - notables such as aerospace designer Burt Rutan and mogul Sir Richard Branson - has been told in a variety of forums, but a new book brings it all together and offers a look at the more technical aspects of the program. "SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History" chronicles the development and successful spaceflights of the Mojave-based project which ushered in the possibility of space travel for the...

EDWARDS AFB - Progress continues on preparing the airborne laser ballistic missile defense system for full-scale ground testing later this year, with a final flight demonstration of its ability to shoot down a ballistic missile still set for 2009. The Missile Defense Agency program, led by contractor The Boeing Co. and housed at Edwards Air Force Base, recently began testing the chemical laser system, the lethal component to the weapon, which is housed in a modified Boeing 747. A high-energy chemical laser, fired through a rotating turret on the airplane's nose, is used to puncture a hole in the missile's...

EDWARDS AFB - Flight testing of an unusual aircraft shape that is intended to provide a more efficient means of cargo transport resumed last month at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The X-48B is a prototype scale model of a blended wing body aircraft - described as a cross between a conventional aircraft and a flying wing - believed to offer greater fuel efficiency by providing more lift and better aerodynamics. The aircraft is shaped as an elongated triangle, with a smooth line from the fuselage extending out into the wings. The program is a joint effort of The Boeing...

MOJAVE - Take a few shouted choruses of the traditional launch countdown. Add the hiss of a model rocket engine, a streak of white smoke and a small, dark object in a clear desert sky. Throw in the enthusiasm of more than 400 elementary school students, complete with team shirts, banners and cheers, and you have the Intermediate Space Challenge. The challenge, conducted Friday morning at the Mojave Air and Space Port, pits classroom teams of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders from Mojave and California City schools in a competition to build a high-flying model rocket as well as to create...

PALMDALE - Technicians at the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale have removed the German-built primary mirror assembly from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy - a telescope carried in a modified Boeing 747 - in preparation for the final finish coating of the mirror. Technicians employed a high-precision crane and other equipment to lift the more than two-ton mirror assembly from its cavity in the rear fuselage of the aircraft, NASA said in an update on the observatory, called SOFIA. After it was removed, the assembly was moved to a clean room where it is being prepared for...

MOJAVE - Businesses at the Mojave Air and Space Port are receiving notices for a tax on their facilities for which they previously had not been billed. Kern County is stepping up its collection of possessory interest taxes, evaluating which businesses at the airport qualify and calculating the value of those businesses. The possessory interest tax applies when a private party is given exclusive use of a publicly owned property for private benefit. Because the Mojave Air and Space Port is government-owned - by the East Kern Airport District - and the hangars and other facilities are leased for the...

EDWARDS AFB - Thirty years ago, a handful of NASA men and women began a study into wingtip devices - vertical extensions called winglets - as a way of reducing aerodynamic drag to improve aircraft cruise performance, which would translate into better fuel economy and lower operating costs. The program did not involve the high-speed, high-risk tests usually associated with the local NASA facility, and the number of people assigned to it at any given time was only about 20. But when all the flight data had been thoroughly studied, results showed winglets increased the aircraft's cruising range - and...

When XCOR Aerospace last week unveiled the design of its suborbital spacecraft, intended to offer a glimpse of black sky and the Earth below to space tourists, one of those excited about the opportunity to experience what few have before was Esther Dyson. Dyson, of EDventure Holdings, ... is one of the investors who will help make it possible. Dyson is an angel investor, an individual who provides seed money for a young company, typically bridging the gap between self-funding and the later, larger investment by venture capitalists. "She has a knack for finding what's new and different in technology,"...

PALMDALE - Its exterior bristling with sensors and collection equipment, its interior packed with scientific instruments, NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory is prepared to take off this morning to study the air over the Arctic Circle. The aircraft will participate in the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites - or ARCTAS - mission, a study of the makeup of the Arctic atmosphere and how it is affected by pollutants. "As of today, we're ready to go. We're really excited," Frank Cutler, Dryden DC-8 project manager, said Monday as researchers completed the final checks on their...

Mojave-based XCOR Aerospace officially joined the quest for space tourists Wednesday when the company unveiled its suborbital spacecraft, the Lynx. The rocketplane, dubbed the Lynx Mark 1, will carry the pilot and a single passenger to the edge of space, high enough to provide passengers a brief period of weightlessness, "a view of stars and black sky above, letting them look back down on Earth and the thin envelope of atmosphere below," XCOR CEO Jeff Greason said. The Lynx will take off horizontally from a standard airport runway under rocket power and quickly climb to 138,000 feet at speeds reaching...

Preparations are on track to demonstrate in flight a high-energy laser, mounted in a modified 747 aircraft, capable of shooting down a ballistic missile shortly after launch. This final test demonstration of the Missile Defense Agency's airborne laser, a program housed at Edwards Air Force Base, is scheduled for 2009. "It's been a tremendous year in directed energy, especially in the airborne laser program," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, the prime contractor for the program. "Airborne laser has now demonstrated all the functions necessary to destroy ballistic missiles." The final flight test...

PALMDALE - NASA's SOFIA infrared-observatory aircraft spent several nights parked on an unlit ramp next to its hangar as its telescope team got a working knowledge of how telescope operating systems interact and the experience of tracking celestial targets from the ground. Their primary celestial target was the North Star, NASA said. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, consists of a modified Boeing 747 jet fitted with a 22-ton German-built infrared telescope. The aircraft is housed at the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale. In addition to establishing a functional baseline for operation of the telescope's control...

PALMDALE - Three groups made their airplane-cleaning debuts as part of the city's Adopt-a-Plane program March 8 at the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at Air Force Plant 42. The Antelope Valley chapter of the Air Force Association adopted the F-100, the Northrop Grumman Recreation Club of the Antelope Valley adopted the B-2 Spirit model and the AV Touring Society Motorcycle Club adopted the A-7 Corsair. Other groups in attendance that already had adopted planes included the Friends of DCMA Palmdale, the Major McManus Boys Club, the Rosamond High School Air Force Junior ROTC, the Civil Air Patrol Squadron 84, the...

EDWARDS AFB - When the first C-17 aircraft took to the air in September 1991, the airplane was expected to have the typically short life of a developmental vehicle, then retire to a museum or some similar fate. However, some 16 years and 1,000 flights later, the airplane known as T-1 continues to contribute to the success of the cargo aircraft program. "T-1 has really been an amazing test vehicle," said Lt. Col. Robert Poremski, director of the C-17 Integrated Test Team at Edwards Air Force Base, T-1's home since it first flew from The Boeing Co.'s manufacturing plant in...

EDWARDS AFB ­- Space shuttle Endeavour astronauts are going into space wearing a mission patch designed by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center research pilot Mark Pestana. Mission STS-123 will take to the international space station the Japanese Kibo module, which will hold electronic equipment and serve as a storage area for experiment materials. It also carries the Canadian Dextre robot, which will attach to the station's robotic arm and allow astronauts to replace hardware outside the station without doing a spacewalk. Pestana's logo depicts a shuttle with its mechanical arm extending the Kibo module to the station. Behind the shuttle...

The future of the aerospace industry in the Antelope Valley was on display Friday at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade Business Outlook Conference. It wasn't the latest high-tech aircraft, however, that held the audience's attention. It was the intelligence, insight and passion shown by the new generation of aerospace workers, three representatives of the area's aerospace industry giants who gave their take on the industry and working and living in the Antelope Valley. "I feel like I'm here today to tell you how lucky I am to work and live here in the Antelope Valley," said Christy Paino ,...

EDWARDS AFB - It sounds like something out of science-fiction movies - electronic warfare. The name conjures visions of laser beams and killer computers. But the field is very real and very much a part of the high-tech testing that goes on every day at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base. The 412th Test Wing, of which the Electronic Warfare Group is one subsection, has four main specialties when it comes to flight testing. These include the airframe itself, testing handling qualities and such factors; propulsion systems; avionics, which includes all the electrical systems such...

PALMDALE - The space shuttle fleet is slated to retire in 2010, and Palmdale officials believe they can offer one of the orbiters a worthy home in the high desert. City officials are pushing the idea of bringing one of the spacecraft to a former B-1B bomber manufacturing hangar that they would convert into a museum. The site, at Rancho Vista Boulevard and 30th Street East, would be near where all six of the space shuttles were built and near the city's airpark. "We have a natural connection," said Mayor Jim Ledford. "We built all the shuttles and we did...

EDWARDS AFB - The 412th Test Wing Hypersonic Flight Test Team, Electronic Warfare Directorate and The Boeing Co. began testing on the X-51 Scramjet-Wave­rider's antennas at the Benefield Anechoic Facility. The X-51 is a self-guided, unmanned aircraft with a scramjet engine enabling it to travel at a hypersonic speed - faster than six times the speed of sound. The aircraft will be loaded onto a B-52 Stratofortress. Boosted by an Army tactical cruise missile, the X-51 will be dropped from an altitude of 50,000 feet and will soar at hypersonic speed. "Hypersonics is the way of the future," said Maj....

When science fiction writer George Clayton Johnson imagined the future, he dreamt of green hills on Mars and the golden-eyed people that lived there. He envisioned the Martian cities that were built by the people and then destroyed by wars, famines and disease. Johnson was strongly influenced by Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles," as well as stories by Theodore Sturgeon , Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson , pulp fiction writers of the twentieth century. "If there had not been a Ray Bradbury there would not have been a George Clayton Johnson," said Johnson, who co-wrote the cult classic "Logan's Run" that...

PALMDALE - The tragedy was felt nationwide when the space shuttle Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew were lost five years ago today when the orbiter broke apart during re-entry. The loss was especially acute for the hundreds of people at The Boeing Co.'s site in Palmdale, birthplace of the shuttles and home to their various modifications. From the earliest years of the space shuttle program, the employees of Rockwell International, which later became part of Boeing, have felt a personal connection to the space program and to the astronauts. "I've never seen anything like it. There's just something special about...

In 100 years, if kids still have textbooks, they'll be reading about what's going on in Mojave right now. Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Mojave's Burt Rutan - a 21st-century version of the Wright brothers - unveiled SpaceShipTwo in New York City this week. They make a great pair. Rutan, who has already designed the first privately funded space ship, has now designed a craft meant to take the next step - space tourism. And Branson, founder and CEO of the Virgin Group of companies, has a seemingly limitless supply of cash to sponsor equally limitless space projects....

EDWARDS AFB - A once-empty school campus at Edwards Air Force Base is home again to the sounds of students and learning, thanks to an all-volunteer effort. In brightly painted classrooms "adopted" and renovated by base organizations, students from nearby Desert High School and Edwards Middle School receive educational enrichment programs provided by volunteer tutors and others, helping to make up for programs and services no longer available after years of school district budget cuts. The Center of Excellence offers tutoring, before-school programs and other educational activities for students and adults, as well. "We have big goals. We've got a...

The Mojave Air and Space Port is bringing in a Washington lobbyist to consult on its efforts to resolve issues regarding its spaceport license with the Federal Aviation Administration. The board of directors of the East Kern Airport District, which governs the spaceport, approved a six-month agreement with James Muncy of Polispace at $1,000 per month. The agreement may be extended if needed. The facility, the first inland spaceport to be licensed by the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, recently received an amended launch site operator's license after months of discussions regarding the facility's plans for safely storing and...

Pilot Mark Pestana not only sails through the wild blue yonder, but he uses his artistic talents to convey the images to others. Pestana, a research pilot at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and a retired Air Force colonel, recently won accolades for his work - acrylic on canvas and photography - in Aviation Week and Space Technology's photo and art contests. The contest winners were published in the magazine's Dec. 24-Dec. 31 issue. "It is very exciting to reach that level," Pestana said. His painting, "The Quest for Mach 10," won first place in the space category for aerospace...

PALMDALE - A B-52 Stratofortress that once was on display at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds now graces the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at Air Force Plant 42. Transported in pieces to Palmdale in June, the massive bomber is the biggest of more than a dozen planes on display at the municipal airpark, which was created to showcase aircraft with links to Palmdale. Although none of the 1950s-era bombers were built at Plant 42, some have been modified there, and some B-52s assigned to Edwards Air Force Base have used Plant 42 for refueling as well as practice takeoffs and landings....

Fred Johnsen's new job is really a homecoming, a return to his roots and an interest that began in childhood. Johnsen was named curator of the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards Air Force Base last month, taking over the position from the museum's only other curator, Doug Nelson. Nelson retired earlier this year after more than 20 years establishing and growing the museum that chronicles the history of the base and the Flight Test Center, and thus the history of test flight in the jet and space age. "It's very much a feeling of coming home," Johnsen...

PALMDALE - Getting into uniform to do your bit and help beat the Nazis gathered in fearsome strength just across the English Channel often meant being ready to lie about your age. And that's what Stella Slydell was willing to do to help win a war that had to be fought. "We all lied about our age during that time," Slydell said. "I was not quite 17 when I entered the Air Force (in) late '42 or early '43," the Palmdale resident remarked of her days serving in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force for the United Kingdom during World War...

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center has added two high-flying birds to its flock. The pair of unmanned Global Hawk aircraft, of the type used by the Air Force for reconnaissance missions, will be used to support the space agency's earth science missions. The aircraft will provide high-altitude, long-duration platforms for varied scientific experiments. "We will essentially provide a truck for scientists to put their experiments on," said Chris Naftel, Global Hawk project manager. The aircraft is designed to fly at more than 60,000 feet altitude with a flight endurance of more than 30 hours. "The beauty of the Global Hawk...

PALMDALE - The latest, and largest, addition to the Joe Davies Heritage Airpark at Air Force Plant 42 is readying for its debut. The massive B-52 Stratofortress bomber is undergoing restoration and reassembly at the airpark at Avenue P and 25th Street East. Thanks to mostly favorable weather conditions and speedy work, the project is expected to be completed by next week, about half the originally estimated time, said Tim Hughes, deputy Public Works director. The city hired Oklahoma-based Turnlow Company to complete the project. "They were highly recommended," Hughes said. The company, one of three which submitted bids to...

The Mojave Air and Space Port received an amendment to its spaceport license from the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday, averting a possible loss of the license. "This came as a pleasant surprise," General Manager Stu Witt told the East Kern Airport District directors during a special meeting Thursday. The district governs the Mojave Air and Space Port. Airport officials still need to analyze the document to determine the full effect on operations at the nation's first inland spaceport. "Some of the terms and conditions have far-reaching operational implications and require mathematical analysis," Witt said in an e-mail to reporters....

MOJAVE - Progress on rocket engine technology continues at XCOR Aerospace, as the company this week announced the successful completion of the first round of testing of its new 56-pound thrust rocket engine, the XR-3E17. The new engine is a direct descendant of the company's first "Tea Cart" engine, which debuted in 2000 and has been used as a demonstration model of the company's capabilities. "We needed a more updated engine," said Aleta Jackson, co-founder of the company, which is based at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The new engine provides nearly four times the thrust of the original...

One of the enduring mysteries of aviation lore is the disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared with their aircraft somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during their attempted around-the-world flight in July 1937. Earhart's ill-fated journey began in Southern California, where her specially modified Lockheed Model 10 Electra was built. Among those who helped create that aircraft was Don Fowble, a young engineer and mechanic on the Lockheed assembly line. Now 93 and a resident of Arcadia, Fowble's story is one of the first-person accounts of Earhart's attempt and the massive search effort featured...

MOJAVE - The nation's first inland spaceport could lose that designation by the end of the year. The Federal Aviation Administration informed officials at the Mojave Air and Space Port of its intention to suspend or revoke the space launch site operator's license Dec. 31. "I have no reason to be optimistic we're going to keep our spaceport license," said General Manager Stu Witt, reporting on the issue to the East Kern Airport District board of directors Tuesday. The district governs the Mojave Air and Space Port. At issue are questions by the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation regarding...

Flight testing is expected to resume as soon as next week at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center on an unusual aircraft shape intended to provide a more efficient means of cargo transport. The X-48B is a prototype scale model of a blended wing body aircraft - described as a cross between a conventional aircraft and a flying wing - believed to offer greater fuel efficiency by providing more lift and better aerodynamics. The aircraft is shaped as an elongated triangle, with a smooth line from the fuselage extending out into the wings. The shape is "a very efficient way of...

NASA is testing a new synthetic aperture radar that may help unravel the mysteries beneath the Earth's surface, such as earthquakes and volcanoes. "What we're trying to do with this sensor is detect the motion of the Earth at the millimeter level," said Scott Hensley, chief scientist on the project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The radar is able to detect minute changes in the Earth's surface, used to measure pressure beneath the surface. For example, pressure along a fault line prior to an earthquake may cause a bulge, as would magma buildup before a volcanic eruption, Hensley said. In...

As baby boomers retire, aerospace and engineering companies in the Antelope Valley need an influx of new workers - homegrown, if possible. Like creosote, mesquite and other native plant species, Antelope Valley residents have an easier time putting down roots in the dusty Mojave Desert, home to Plant 42 and Edwards Air Force Base. "From an employer's perspective, we see much higher rates of turnover when we recruit young engineers from anywhere east of California," said Michael Huggins, chief of the Air Force Research Lab at Edwards. "They're not used to the desert environment and they're away from home." Using...

Mojave-based rocket developer Interorbital Systems has teamed with a European philanthropic organization to launch a satellite-based camera into space. The joint venture with Vision One is intended to launch "Eyes in Space," a $1.2 million satellite mission which will beam back images of Earth available on the Internet. "We at Vision One feel that this type of project and technology developed by (Interorbital Systems) is a 'must support.' It's an international, independent effort by individuals promoting human ingenuity and creativity, and working outside the usual government/military space agencies," Vision One co-founder Bruce Jessop said in a statement announcing the formation...

MOJAVE - A Mojave-built rocket engine completed its first test series for NASA under a program to aid the agency's quest to return to the moon, Alliant Techsystems announced Friday. Alliant said it has completed testing of a 7,500-pound-force thrust liquid oxygen-methane workhorse engine. The test series provided valuable insights into LOX-methane engine ignition, startup, shutdown, nominal operation, off-nominal operation and dynamic combustion stability, according to the company. The work was conducted as part of a NASA effort to develop technologies that could be incorporated into a propulsion system for the ascent stage of a lunar lander. "The workhorse engine...

EDWARDS AFB - A remotely piloted attack plane was packed up at an Antelope Valley airfield and shipped to Afghanistan in a test of its ability to deploy to combat zones. The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center Detachment 5 and the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron tested the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle system's deployability on Sept. 24 and 25 at Kandahar Air Base. "We tested the amount of time required to get the entire MQ-9 weapon system operational, from disassembly and transport to assembly of the aircraft in a deployed location and technical checks," said 1st Lt....