Message posted by Peter Merlin on May 06, 2012 at 22:42:00 PST:

The two planes next to the orbital Sciences L-1011 are the X-34-A1 and X-34-A2. After the X-34 program was cancelled in 2002, the two airframes were kicked around Edwards for a while, eventually being stored in a hangar at North Base. Several years later, they were towed out to the Edwards bombing range and all of the X-34 material (equipment, spare parts, etc.) was scrapped.

Both vehicles were removed from the range in 2010, and sat for several months on the edge of the lakebed near the entrance to the East Shore Shuttle Viewing Area. They were eventually towed to NASA Dryden in May 2010. Despite years of neglect (and rodents, bird droppings, sun, wind, dust, rain, and extreme temperatures), Orbital Sciences decided to inspect the vehicles to determine if they could be made flyable.

They were trucked to Mojave in November 2010.

In Reply to: Re: Mojave Airport posted by franz on May 06, 2012 at 21:18:50 PST:

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