ROSAMOND DRY LAKE, 21 square miles of hardened clay, sprawls across the southwest corner of California's Mojave Desert. The lakebed's remote site made it an ideal emergency runway for secret 1940s military aircraft like the Bell XP-59A and X-l, and it has stayed off-limits to civilians ever since. Today, Rosamond is part of Edwards Air Force Base. "Its airspace is hot with military jets," says local pilot Roger Tonry "so number one, you'll probably get busted going in there. Number two: You might get killed." When the base's public affairs office announced it would hold a lottery to allow 100 civilian pilots to land on the base frequented by the most storied research aircraft in aviation history, Tonry submitted his application— along with more than 2,000 others. "We were wondering
展开▼
