Surplus Gov't Property? A Moffett Update

Historic Hangar One at former NAS Moffett, now in NASA hands.

Poor old historic airship Hangar One at Sunnyvale, California's Moffett Field. It is being passed around from government agency to government agency like an annoying foster child. First the Navy began to undress the hanger--toxic something-or-others in the skin--and now NASA, the present landlord of the old Navy base, wants the field declared "surplus government property" and handed over those fine Las Vegas party animals at the GSA.

I can understand why NASA doesn't want to deal with all the maintenance on this 1000-acre site. Unfortunately, NASA's decision, right at this time, could foul up negotiations going on between our local congresswoman and Google's founders--who have volunteered to pay $30M (or so) to reskin Hangar One, if they can store a couple of their private jets inside. (Google jets? But of course!)

How Many Gov't Agencies Does it Take ...

Historic Hangar One, Moffett Field, 1/10/2012.

A friend was over at Moffett Field this week and sent me some photos that show the work on historic Hangar One. The "de-skinning" is going along much faster than any of us expected.

There is an offer on the table from the Google founders to "re-skin" it, if they can just store their fleet of planes there--who knew they had a fleet of planes? But their offer is a good one, and would save the hangar. And there the offer sits.

The Dawn is Breaking: Quick Get Some Glue!

The edge of Moffett's Hangar Two at left, and then, across the field from that, the famous Hangar One, as the sun comes up over the Santa Clara Valley. The moon still shines on California's Coast Range, in the distance.

I was up at oh-dark-hundred this morning, in my volunteer role, escorting a news crew from KNTV in San Jose, for the Moffett Museum. We headed in the dark over to Moffett's Hangar Two so reporter Bob Redell, from the local NBC-TV affiliate, could do some early morning live reports on Jack Clemens and his hand-built, flyable model of the old airship, USS Macon.

A twenty-foot-long flying toy blimp! Good pictures for television and that's for sure.

Not Bad for Government Work: the Beauty of Moffett's Historic Hangars

Looking up at the arc of Hangar Three from inside the south end looking north.

Several days ago, one of the volunteers I'm working with at the Moffett Historical Society and Museum suggested I go to the other side of the field to see some of the vintage aircraft he and his crew are restoring for display.

Lou Somontes is retired Navy--like a lot of the volunteers--and he has spent thousands of hours restoring some vintage military planes for display in the museum's new Air Wing lot. I don't know much about aircraft, but I'm helping with publicity and was interested to see the work. 

What I got was a rare treat.