New imagery of Edwards AFB on Google Earth

I don't have enough posts to start a thread or private message anyone, so can someone post this for me and then delete this post? Found a Globehawk testing at Edwards on flight aware. I don't know much about that plane so I'm not sure if it is anything cool or not. flightaware.com...

The global hawk is part of NASA GRIP "Genesis and Rapid Intensification Process". Amazing how that information provides no information. ;-) It is a weather monitoring program.

Weird how I could track it last night and this morning, now I cant

reply to post by Zeta Reticulan


maybe there training planes? for military actions??? like the movie.... SWAT ya!

reply to post by Shrewd22


The plane is still trackable.

NASA tends to be very open about thr RQ-4. They have one set up for fire monitoring, and it can be tracked as well.

Yeah not I can see the whole flight path again. It was going in and out before.

Wish I could post threads, I found an article about a UAV crash down in the Antelope Valley a couple days ago..

I can still see the path. You may want to go to the plane's history and look at older flights. Or try another browser.

Regarding the predator crash, I suppose I should have started a thread on it. General Atomics has three facilities in the Antelope Valley. El Mirage is near the aviation junkyard and close to the dry lake. They filmed the pilgrimage to Area 51 in the movie Independence Day at El Mirage dry lake. The General Atomics (hereafter GA) facility at El Mirage is for the Army variant of the Predator.

The GA facility at Grey Butte is for USAF predators. It is rumored the CIA uses that base as well. It is a bit more remote than El Mirage.

The third GA facility is in Adelanto. There is no airfield there. It is not for training but rather for assembly (I assume).

I have watched training at both facilities. Training consists of flying orbits with a plane in chase. I haven't noticed any photo targets on either field, but they could be learning how to run the sensors at these facilities too.

Here is where things get interesting. The plane that crashed was from Grey Butte, but crashed near El Mirage. I didn't know they flew between facilities. My understanding is for low level flight, the control is from a ground based transmitter. (Long distance flight uses a satellite link). They use ground control to get aroind the satellite lag, which would make landing very difficult.

So there are now a few questions. Was the plane still under control of Grey Butte when it crashed? Or did the facilities try to do a hand off, that is let El Mirage take over the flight. Or did they go to satellite control midway for more realistic training?

UAV flights in the general area are also allowed at KEDW and KVCV. KVCV has a guard wing there. KEDW is for test. Scaled Composites has built at least ine UAV at KMHV, but I don't know if it every flew there.

I've heard they do a lot of UAV testing at China Lake also, but I would assume it's more for testing weapons. I miss living in Ridgecrest, seen and heard a lot of cool stuff.

34°59'0.95"N 117°51'46.50"W

Ah? North, North Edwards airforce base. nice runways ands building. The white jet is VERY cool.

Originally posted by DeadSteve1234
34°59'0.95"N 117°51'46.50"W

Ah? North, North Edwards airforce base. nice runways ands building. The white jet is VERY cool.

Hi

I like the White jet too! In another date there is a b-52 parked near it and allowing for a tiny bit of error the two planes were almost the same. The lenght is almost exactly the same. The white jets wings are a not as wide but have that nice beefy root section. The fusalages are the same width too!

ANY idea what type of plane it is?

reply to post by DeadSteve1234


I assume you have cranked the time machine back to 6/5/2009. If you go back one more step to 4/29/2008, the image is much sharper. There is only one aircraft there, but it is the same shape. Now 4 engines and high wing would normally mean C-17, but the shape is all wrong. It looks more like a C-135, but the size is wrong and it isn't high wing. Maybe the high wing look is due to how Google Earth did the shot. There is a google earth community marker indicating one of the two planes is a B-52, but the wing don't look swept enough, nor do the engines look "chubby".

Incidentally, the current imagery is now 8/25/2012. This might be a recent upgrade.

The AFFTC Museum was storing several aircraft at North Base including NC-141A (61-2779). Nicknamed "Against the Wind" by her crew chief, this aircraft was heavily modified as the Advanced Radar Test Bed (ARTB). Structural modifications included a modified tail cone and a universal nose that could be interchanged with B-1, F-15, and F-16 nose radomes and radar systems for in-flight instrumented testing. Racks of interface electronics, computers, data recorders, and operator stations filled the cargo compartment.

reply to post by gariac


Yeah , the surrounding area is called the "antelope valley" consisting of Mojave , rosamond,Lancaster,Palmdale littlerock,pearblossom,Quartz Hill and a few other small areas like antelope acres,high vista and lake Los Angeles.
For over forty five years we have seen and met some very interesting characters slinking around the Podunk watering holes, especially during the cold war a lot of Soviet agents snooping for secrets and liaisons .
Experimental craft have been seen over the decades along with numerous private cutting edge companies. Many whose name might be "the shop" for instance.
I once saw a British Harrier near land and drop off " literally" an American pilot on Sierra Hwy(a main drag in Lancaster) to have a beer with his war buddy parked in his van watching "touch and go's" from skunk works runway.
The secrecy and testing is still going strong,24 hrs. A day.

reply to post by Shadowhawk




Referring page
www.bellx-2.com...

OK, the pointy nose confused me. Incidentally, I caught some of the Starlifters at Red Flag prior to their retirement:


Apropos of nothing, I noticed that B-2 "garden" at South Base, that looks like it has been there forever. Well it was captured in the 1994 imagery. The landscape concrete is designed to look like a B-2, which I never noticed before. They have a small B-2 garden gnome.



The NC-141A appears to be at South Base now.
34°53'59.43"N 117°52'8.94"W

You guys notice the unusually large amount of tankers there? I count five KC-135's with the white one the only one that belongs to Edwards, and 1 C-130 which could very well be a KC-130. I'm willing to guess that a couple of those -135's are T models too....


In regards to the B-2 garden, yeah it's been there a long time. My best friend from highschool joined the Air Force with me and he ended up getting the cool job of loading bombs on bombers at Edwards. They almost always have a B-2 at Edwards for one reason or another. If you look at google earth, its probably in the hanger right across from the B-1. We could go into the hanger for a tour, but not up in the cockpit. However, he was able to take us up inside the B-52 and the B-1. Very cool cockpit in the B-1.

reply to post by boomer135


Well here's a question. Do they try to put tankers near pipeline depots? Kinder Morgan runs a pipeline from LA (I think) to Nellis, with an outlet also in Barstow.
www.kindermorgan.com...

If Edwards has a tap since the pipeline goes right by it, then it would be a good place to top off. That is, the planes could be in transit. This is all speculation on my part, other than the documented outlets.

The economics of pipelines is pretty interesting, though a bit off topic. Pipelines that are not owned by the petro companies carry fuel from many vendors, hence they are common carriers, which in turn means eminent domain can be used in their routing since it is for a public good.

Originally posted by gariac
reply to post by boomer135

 

Well here's a question. Do they try to put tankers near pipeline depots? Kinder Morgan runs a pipeline from LA (I think) to Nellis, with an outlet also in Barstow.
www.kindermorgan.com...

If Edwards has a tap since the pipeline goes right by it, then it would be a good place to top off. That is, the planes could be in transit. This is all speculation on my part, other than the documented outlets.

The economics of pipelines is pretty interesting, though a bit off topic. Pipelines that are not owned by the petro companies carry fuel from many vendors, hence they are common carriers, which in turn means eminent domain can be used in their routing since it is for a public good.

no ive never heard of a tanker in transit topping off there althoughi didnt know about the pipeline. pretty interesting. the only time that there s that many tankers on the ramp is for a new flight testing project, most likely f-35s but theyprobably have another project out of groom needing support too with five craft on the ramp. during f-22 testing, there were never more than 3 there including the white one. we only used 2 planes a day for those flights.

All those plains on the ground at the same time?
I bet they are testing a computer plain recognizing system.

That group of planes are old planes that the museum may restore at some point. The two newest additions are a C-130 and a Global Hawk. I used those planes many time to accomplish explosive dog training so there's nothing hinky about them. They are not fenced off or anything and are right next to the road. The large light colored hangar is where the ABL was (it is long gone) and that circular tank we termed the "Death Star" due to the liquids stored in it. The smaller hangar just below and to the right is where the B-2 roosts and my cops guard it. Eventually the new bomber will head to South Base to begin testing but outside of that the B-2 is the priority regarding resources at Edwards. North Base is an interesting place and is probably the most secretive part of Edwards currently. Nothing unusual has been spotted but there places the cops can't respond to.

reply to post by Wardog72


Edwards "cops" is a combination of the Kern County Sheriff and I assume some sort of USAF police? Is AFOSI the police, or is that something different?

I've scanned EDW during air shows, and it is pretty obvious there is a mixture of law enforcement on base, i.e. civilian and military. One year during the open house Kern SD got some clown trying to join the century club.