Interest Point 6 - MASP Administration

Turn back on White St. headed south, turn right (westbound) on Sabovich St. On your left you can find ASB avionics which provides installation and modification of avionics. Continue until the stop sign where you will turn right on Airport Blvd.

You have arrived at the Mojave Air and Space Port Administration building, pilot’s lounge and Voyager Restaurant (a good place to stop for lunch to be immersed in the history of the Voyager). You will notice the orange logo of the MASP in the lawn in front of the headquarters building. Parking anywhere in this parking lot will allow you to walk into Legacy Park, where the large white Rotary Rocket sits rising over the bushes. Inside the small park is a full size model of SpaceShipOne, a scale model of the Voyager aircraft, and the Rotary Rocket vehicle. Every third Saturday of the month a historical aircraft display is held. This is a free family ‘educational’ event in which local pilots display their unique and historic aircraft.

 

SpaceShipOne was built and flown by Scaled Composites, which was founded by Burt Rutan. SpaceShipOne was carried by its mothership, WhiteKnightOne, up to altitude where it was dropped from the mothership and fired its rocket to propel its single pilot to space in a suborbital trajectory. SpaceShipOne was the proof of concept aircraft which lead to the development of SpaceShipTwo, the larger version to be operated by Virgin Galactic.

The Voyager was the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe non-stop without refueling. The aircraft was another Burt Rutan design, and was piloted on its circumnavigation flight by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in December of 1986. The hanger for the aircraft can be seen as you exit Legacy Park by looking two buildings right of the MASP administration building. It is the light green hangar with the low roof, building 77.

The Rotary Rocket Roton was a concept aircraft to get to space. The pilot sat in the large glass bubble to control the aircraft. Atop the vehicle displayed here were four rotor blades which were powered by tip jets. The idea was to fly to high altitude using the rotors before firing a conventional rocket to deliver small satellites to space. The vehicle would then return to earth, controlled by its rotor during the descent. Although the venture failed, several companies were founded with the knowledge gained from the Roton experience.