The Battle of Palmdale

September 15, 2016 5:12 PM

The day the Red Menace came to Los Angeles
posted by pjern (9 comments total)

I'm thinking this was just Howard Hughes and Hedy Lamar out on a date.
posted by clavdivs at 5:34 PM on September 15, 2016

At the end of the article, there's a link to one about this sweet little number. I'm really kind of surprised that we survived the fifties and sixties.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:18 PM on September 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

As far as clusterfucks go, this one has to be one of the greats. A single out-of control obsolete, self-flying, unarmed aircraft managed to elude two state-of-the-art jet fighters, 208 rockets, and in the process of this little drone’s aerial rumspringa, caused a crapload of damage to a whole swath of Southern California desert communities.

A++ for working rumspringa in there.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:58 PM on September 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm just glad no one was hurt so I don't have to feel bad about being so amused at this story.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 7:49 PM on September 15, 2016

I think this was probably not completely out of the ordinary for that time in Southern California. I spent my early teen years living very near that part of Palmdale during the early 80s. Me and a couple buddies spent all our free time exploring the desert on motorcycles/minibikes back then. We came across bits and pieces of planes all the time. The desert valley is littered (was?-it's far more populated and developed these days) with the stuff. The region was largely an extended proving ground from Edwards AF base, China Lake, etc, and aerospace was (and still is to this day) a huge part of the area. The stuff we came across was sometimes pretty wild, sometimes not so little pieces of aircraft. In addition to the scattered abandoned homesteads, mining operations, and mystery structures devices. It was a pretty inspiring, almost post apocalyptic, landscape for my imagination. It's pretty amazing to hear this story for the first time!
posted by 2N2222 at 8:35 PM on September 15, 2016 [6 favorites]

Air Force shenanigans over California? Now if this had been the plot to The Starfighters, then they would have had something.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:40 PM on September 15, 2016

The desert valley is littered (was?-it's far more populated and developed these days) with the stuff. It still is, at least to the extent that you can still go out and find a small piece of an X-15, or melted aluminum from a crashed YB-49 flying wing, which is just from two of the sites I visited while on a trip with one of the guys from the X Hunters "Aerospace archaeology team".
posted by jjwiseman at 12:35 PM on September 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The desert valley is littered (was?-it's far more populated and developed these days) with the stuff. It still is, at least to the extent that you can still go out and find a small piece of an X-15, or melted aluminum from a crashed YB-49 flying wing, which is just from two of the sites I visited while on a trip with one of the guys from the X Hunters "Aerospace archaeology team".

That's a pretty neat site. The postcard-like photo on the Welcome page reminds me that you used to be able to usually pass through Edwards AFB from the south, if you were headed to, say, Boron. Since going around the base would be a very significant detour. Now, why you would have Boron as a destination is another question. Anyhow. Maybe you still can. A few years back I was in the area, and it sure looked like passing though was not a possibility any longer, though.

However, if you did, it was a very strange landscape indeed. My recollection is that it looked a bit like Porky In Wackyland.

A vast amount of open desert has been turned into L.A. exurbs. But I've no doubt there's still lots to be explored. I still want to really run around the region to the east and south of Edwards extending from about El Mirage dry lake to the area around Kramer Junction. It's so desolate and remote there, with lots of history. If only I had a suitable motorcycle, and more importantly, free time...
posted by 2N2222 at 1:46 AM on September 29, 2016

I wish I knew more of that area, and as you say, had more time.

(I actually went on a tour of Boron and its surroundings once. There's the abandoned federal prison, the giant Borax mine, the solar power plant, the aerospace "museum"...)
posted by jjwiseman at 2:35 PM on October 13, 2016