Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense company. With 95,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. The firm ranked No. 101 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations.
The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical research. AFRC operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world and is known for many aviation firsts, including supporting the first crewed airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight, highest speed by a crewed, powered aircraft, the first pure digital fly-by-wire aircraft, and many others. AFRC operates a second site next to Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, known as Building 703, once the former Rockwell International/North American Aviation production facility. There, AFRC houses and operates several of NASA's Science Mission Directorate aircraft including SOFIA, a DC-8 Flying Laboratory, a Gulfstream C-20A UAVSAR and ER-2 High Altitude Platform. As of 2023, Bradley Flick is the center's director.
The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit, aviation museum in McMinnville, Oregon. Its exhibits include the Hughes H-4 Hercules and more than fifty military and civilian aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), and spacecraft. The museum complex includes four main buildings: the original aviation exhibit hall, a large screen digital theater, a second exhibit hall focused on space technology, and a water park.
The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, and the southeast portion of California's Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the San Gabriel Mountains. The valley was named for the pronghorns that roamed there until they were all eliminated in the 1880s, mostly by hunting, or resettled in other areas. The principal cities in the Antelope Valley are Palmdale and Lancaster.
The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum in the Seattle metropolitan area. It is located at the southern end of King County International Airport in the city of Tukwila, immediately south of Seattle. It was established in 1965 and is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. As the largest private air and space museum in the world, it also hosts large K–12 educational programs.
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA used to transport Space Shuttle orbiters. One (N905NA) is a 747-100 model, while the other (N911NA) is a short-range 747-100SR. Both are now retired.
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia. It holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, the Enola Gay, and the Boeing 367-80, the main prototype for the popular Boeing 707 airliner.
Palmdale Regional Airport is an airport in Palmdale, California, United States. The city of Palmdale took over the airport at the end of 2013, managing it via the Palmdale Airport Authority. The airport currently does not have any scheduled passenger airline service.
The San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California. It is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, which is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places. The museum was established by articles of incorporation on October 12, 1961, and opened to the public on February 15, 1963.
The Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (WOTR) is located on the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, United States. The museum preserves the history of Lowry AFB's operations from 1938 to 1994 in its collections, archives, and research library.
Castle Air Museum is a military aviation museum located at Castle Airport in Atwater, California.
The Scaled Composites Triumph is a twin-engine, business jet prototype designed and built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites for Beechcraft. It was known officially as the Model 143, and internally at Scaled as the "Tuna". The aircraft is a three lifting surface design, with both a small canard, and a small conventional horizontal stabilizer in a T-tail configuration.
The Lockheed Martin X-55 Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) is an experimental twinjet transport aircraft. It is intended to demonstrate new air cargo-carrier capabilities using advanced composite materials. A project of the United States Air Force's Air Force Research Laboratory, it was built by the international aerospace company Lockheed Martin, at its Advanced Development Programs facility in Palmdale, California.
Hickory Aviation Museum is an aviation museum at the Hickory Regional Airport in Hickory, North Carolina. It features a museum located in the former airport terminal with artifacts, a hangar with aircraft and outdoor exhibits of aircraft on the former airport ramp.
United States Air Force Plant 42 is a classified aircraft manufacturing plant owned by the United States Air Force in the Antelope Valley, about 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It is also used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Northrop Grumman RQ-180 is an American stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance aircraft intended for contested airspace. As of 2019, there had been no images or statements released, but evidence points to the existence of the RQ-180 and its use in regular front-line service.
The Aviation Heritage Park and Museum is an aviation museum located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The park and museum highlight regional pilots their contributions to United States air and space travel.
The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is an American strategic bomber in development for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Northrop Grumman. Part of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program, it is to be a stealth intercontinental strategic bomber that can deliver conventional and thermonuclear weapons. Named "Raider" in honor of the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, the B-21 is meant to replace the Rockwell B-1 Lancer and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit by 2040, and possibly the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress after that.
The Air Force Flight Test Museum is an aviation museum located at Edwards Air Force Base near Rosamond, California focused on the history of the Air Force Flight Test Center.
