Wednesday
(0)Brian just posted one of my favorite shots of the Scaled Composites spaceship and wondered how large the windmills in the background windfarm are.
The answer is: big. Here are two of my non-telephoto photos of roughly the same area as seen from within the confines of the Mojave Civilian Test Flight Facility (a couple hours travel north and east of Los Angeles, California):
Photo: Dale Amon, all rights reserved
Photo: Dale Amon, all rights reserved
Yes, those are the same mountains you see in the photo on Brian's blog. The windfarm was actually just barely visible in the top image before I cut it down to blog-size. I am far less certain of the direction of the bottom photo, but I think it shows the mountains in the opposite direction as I can see the control tower in it. (There is also an F4 Phantom. Can you find it?)
Things tend to be very big and very far away in that part of the world!
Nah, things are just little and close where you are.
Such cute little countries.
Posted by Charlie at November 26, 2003 03:26 PM
Having worked for a number of years at the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center I can say that I have seen some of the marvels that the Rutans at Scaled Composites have created. I recall when a neighbor took his son and I to see the Voyager prior to its flight around the world. Between MCFTC, Edwards Air Force Base and Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale (Current home of the Lockheed Skunk Works), the people who live in that area see the cutting edge of aerospace technology on an almost daily basis.
As for the Tehachapi wind farms, those windmills have been a landmark for years. On particularly blustery we days, the running joke would be to point at them and complain that someone had left the #*%$# fans on again.
Posted by W.E. Wade at November 26, 2003 03:38 PM
It's quite a site to see form the air, I've had flying lessons over those things and they're amazing. It's also something to drive past them too.
Posted by Dave O'Neill at November 26, 2003 04:43 PM
I went up to the site a few minutes ago, a guy there gave me a few useful web references, where I found these:
http://www.awea.org/projects/california.html#Tehachapi
http://www.awea.org/projects/summaries/OakCreekII.pdf
I saw some of the blades for these turbines resting on the ground, I've flown in airliners with smaller wings.
Hub Height: 55m (180 ft)
Blade Length: 23.5 m (77 ft)
...and these are only 750 kW units, Mitsubishi makes ones up to 3 MW. Yowza.
Posted by Doug Jones at November 26, 2003 11:42 PM
I used to think the windfarms looked cool, but by a year, or so, ago they've become an eye-sore to me. Too much of a good thing, I guess.
Mojave has some really nifty stuff, test and otherwise, and with Edwards next door the whole area has some pretty cool stuff.
Posted by Kalroy at November 27, 2003 07:39 AM
