Aunt Jen Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 You know, a soooo good movie: Space Cowboys, starring Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones.... These guys are Muroc AFB (now Edwards) hot-shot test pilots, left out of the space program, perhaps by politics and chicanery, who in the '90s wind up essential to a problem in orbit. NASA needs them and they finagle their way into space.....and then some. I am just so thankful for it. My husband was not a test pilot, but he was a flight test engineer at Muroc/Edwards (who test pilots work for, who designs the flight test programs), and when I see these old guys valued and needed, and still very much able to kick NASA newby as&^%, it warms my soul. I just liked the movie and the concepts, and wanted to share. Aunt Jen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apache Hawk 60642 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 You know, a soooo good movie: Space Cowboys, starring Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones.... These guys are Muroc AFB (now Edwards) hot-shot test pilots, left out of the space program, perhaps by politics and chicanery, who in the '90s wind up essential to a problem in orbit. NASA needs them and they finagle their way into space.....and then some. I am just so thankful for it. My husband was not a test pilot, but he was a flight test engineer at Muroc/Edwards (who test pilots work for, who designs the flight test programs), and when I see these old guys valued and needed, and still very much able to kick NASA newby as&^%, it warms my soul. I just liked the movie and the concepts, and wanted to share. Aunt Jen I know what cha mean Aunt Jen. I got a kick out of Tommy Lee Jones ridin' dat rocket to da moon, wif all dem nukes !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashpowder Hal Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 They still have a lot of cool stuff at Edwards AFB, Usta have more fun back when Pancho Barnes owned the Happy Bottom Riding club. Too bad that we'll have to pay the Russians to send up our boys from now on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Dave Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Yup, love that movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunt Jen Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 That is so cool: At one point the young astronauts send 4 complimentary Ensure drinks to the 4 older astronauts; so later, the 4 older ones send 4 complimentary jars of baby food to the four younger..... And I do love Edwards AFB. I used to love flying into there, parking in building 1600. AJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Balz, SASS#46599 Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Read Yeagers autobiography "Yeager" outstanding book about an outstanding man and pilot. He has a lot of coverage about the old days at Muroc and Happy Bottom. Once he and Bob Hoover were trying to fend off a hangover for an early flight. They went to Happy Bottom to get Pancho to make them some Steak and Eggs in the early morning. They knocked on the door and Pancho opened it wearing only panties, they both threw up on the spot I loved Tommy Lees character in that movie, I suspect in 15 years when I can't get a real job, I'll probably buy a bi plane and sell rides in the Utah desert. People get touchy when you subject them to - G's, sure way to get them to hurl, unless you place them in front of a real ugly women in panties in the early morning after a long night of drinking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashpowder Hal Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 When I was 15, I meet Pancho coming into a local store in Rosamond, Wearing a man's brown suit and fedora She was one ugly woman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Spent a lot of time at Edwards and Palmdale starting with the B1A, then the Shuttle, B2 and YF23. Last time I was there in 2000 just before I retired was really saddened to see that it looked like a ghost town. Not a lot happening. Talked to some of my test engineering buddies and told me that hardly any test activity going on as now almost everything was being done in a simulator and with the computer Had some great times there. Some of the Space Cowboys footage was shot at the old NAA/Rockwell plant in Downey, Ca., now a city park, movie set, hospital and shopping center Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aunt Jen Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 I never met Poncho, but I got my CFI at Barnes Aviation at WJF... Points for that? No, I missed all that. All I can say about that is on approach to land at KEDW (Edwards AFB), east out of Rosamond, at the bend in the road, Painless would look to the right out of the cockpit and tell me that that was where the Happy Bottom Riding Club was back when. I think I really missed something. Not Poncho, so much, but the whole Muroc, EDW thing. It really warmed my heart to watch Space Cowboys. AJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashpowder Hal Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 For a truly interestin' read try Poncho's biography, The Happy Bottom Riding Club, by Lauren Keesler. Pancho had more flying records than Amelia Earhart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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