Wednesday, March 25, 2009 
FILE PHOTO: F-22 Raptor performs at the N'Awlins Air Show in Belle Chasse, La. One of the Air Force's F-22 fighter jets crashed March 25.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — One of the Air Force's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California, killing a test pilot for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.
The F-22A Raptor crashed at 10 a.m. about 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. The Bureau of Land Management identifies the area as Harper Dry Lake, a vast and empty expanse of sometimes marshy flat land.
This dry lakebed in the Mojave Desert was the site of secret flight test programs conducted by the Hughes & Northrop aircraft companies during the 1940s,including the historic first flight by an American rocket-propelled aircraft.
The pilot was David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003, the company said in a statement. It did not release any details of the accident or say whether Cooley attempted to eject.
Cooley was part of a team of company and Air Force pilots who conduct F-22 testing.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of David and our concerns, thoughts and prayers at this time are with his family," the statement said.
Sam Grizzle, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., said no additional information would be released.
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I radioed the flight-test engineer in the control room at the Lockheed Flight Test ..... I don't know at what rate of descent I hit the ground; I went from so many .... Tony landed the twin Beech on Harper Dry Lake and taxied to a stop, ...
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"The Harper Dry Lake site is close to Air Force Plant 42, the Palmdale development ... 60 miles from its Palmdale assembly area to the high-desert launch grounds. ... Testing of one of the VentureStar prototypes, the X-33 rocket plane, ...
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Northrop test pilots had more than their share of thrills and narroow escapes as .... ground tests of the rocket motor were conducted at Harper Dry Lake, ...
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The western Mojave, generally around Rogers Dry Lake and Harper Dry Lake exhibited .... The National Training Center and the Marine Corp Air Ground Combat Center ..... This test provided a way to determine which locations in the Mojave ...
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Mar 25, 2009 ... The Bureau of Land Management identifies the area as Harper Dry Lake, ... The jet, assigned to the 411th Flight Test Squadron of Edwards' 412th Test Wing, was on a test mission, said Air Force Maj. ... The warplanes can carry air-to-air missiles but are capable of ground attack as well. ...
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Feb 6, 2002 ... NASA Meatball, NASA Dryden Drone for Aeroelastic Structure Testing (DAST) banner ... and the DAST-2 crashed into a farm field near Harper Dry Lake. ... In case of failure in any of the ground systems, the DAST vehicle ...
www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Photo/DAST/HTML/ECN-20... - 18k - Similar pages
Edwards AFB
US AFFTC
Air Force Flight Test Center
The dry lake and the area to the east were first used by the military in late 1933 when a small detachment from March Field laid out the first of several temporary bombing and gunnery ranges. By 1937, the entire Army Air Corps was conducting bombing and gunnery maneuvers and a semipermanent tent camp had been established along the lakebed's eastern shoreline. Designated originally as the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range. and later as Muroc Army Air Field. The base played an important role in the training of fighter and bomber crews throughout World War II.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 18, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI), a major international supplier to Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) on the F-35 Lightning II aircraft program, has produced and delivered its first structural assemblies for the jet.
A photo accompanying this release is available at http://media.globenewswire.com/noc/
The metallic assemblies, which contain more than 100 parts each, represent the next major step forward in TAI's evolving role as a second source supplier of complete F-35 center fuselages. The company delivered its first F-35 composite parts in late 2008.
A: I think we have a long way to go before we can contemplate pulling out U.S. troops which are a fairly essential part of our Asian security structure right now.
Can I just finish up and say a word about my colleague Sam Grizzle. This is the last of many briefings for which he's helped me to prepare. As you probably know, Sam is, on Monday, starting in the low-pressure, short-hour job of General McCaffrey's spokesman at the National Drug Policy Office. Sam has been here since July of 1995. He has had extensive experience in the government to prepare him for his new job: worked at the Department of Energy before he came here, and he'd also, at one point, been a desk officer in DDI.
Sam is a Georgian, from Calhoun, Georgia. There must be a lot of dogs in Calhoun, Georgia, because Sam is always talking about dogs. He has phrases like, "That dog won't hunt no more," "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch," is one of his phrases. And another one is, "Unless you're the lead sled dog, the view's always the same."
Sam is about to become the lead sled dog in General McCaffrey's PA shop, and we wish him all the best there.
Declassification of Certain Characteristics of the United States Nuclear Weapon Stockpile U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Public Affairs
Contact: Sam Grizzle
(202) 586-5806
Retired Four Star General Barry McCaffrey Joins Mutualink
WASHINGTON — Today, Mutualink announced that former Drug Czar and retired four-star U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey has joined Mutualink, Inc. as a key business advisor. General McCaffrey, and his consulting firm BR McCaffrey Associates, will be providing government relations, business strategy and business development advice to Mutualink’s Board of Directors and executive management team in order to assist the company in promoting the nationwide adoption of its novel and affordable interoperable multimedia communications sharing solution for nationwide emergency preparedness and response. Along with an outstanding record of military and public service achievements, McCaffrey brings to Mutualink in-depth knowledge and expertise in homeland security, defense and emergency management matters.
