Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Art Silva, a NASA facility engineer, replaces one of the ultrasonic wind sensors in the wind tunnel at Moffett Field, where a replica of the original Wright Brothers plane is undergoing testing. The plane is being prepared for the 100-year aniversary celebration of the first flight, set for 2003 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
By Carol Tiegs and Bruce Barton
Town Crier Staff Writers
Hangar One at Moffett Federal Air Field may be our standout architectural statement here in the South Bay, in the way the Space Needle is to Seattle - though the romantic element isn't quite so apparent. It is an immense, imposing structure that has overseen decades of local development as orchards gave way to the eventual birth of Silicon Valley.
The hangar that housed dirigibles in the 1930s is now the topic of plans for an air and space museum, one of several options NASA Ames Research Center officials are exploring as the future of this former Naval airfield is at a crossroads.
NASA Ames, the primary Moffett Field tenant, is honoring Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Los Altos directives not to pursue more aviation, either through air cargo or other commercial flight activity. Since the Mountain View and Sunnyvale city council votes against more flight activity in 1997, observers say Moffett officials have been more aggressive about attracting other sources of revenue to make up an annual $3.5 million deficit that has been hanging over Moffett since its closure as a military base in 1994.
There are still more questions than answers at this point about what will happen to Moffett, but a number of promising activities are under way.
Lenny Siegel, representing the watchdog group Alliance for a New Moffett Field, contends NASA Ames isn't as worried about turning a profit as it is in pursuing its space science mission.
"They are not a profit-making organization," Siegel said. "If they do something within their mission, they don't have to make money."
Moffett docent and Los Altos resident Carl Orta, also an Alliance member, says differently.
"That dilemma (making up the deficit) still stands," he said. "They need to make some money out of some of this stuff."
The focus of the 19-member Community Advisory Committee on Moffett Field, commissioned by the Mountain View and Sunnyvale city councils in 1996-98, was to recommend appropriate airfield uses so that NASA Ames could, in fact, generate more cash flow. The worst-case scenario, of course, was that NASA Ames and the federal government would pull out of Moffett altogether, leaving the airfield open to San Jose International Airport, which has been looking to expand.
The committee decided that some form of air cargo activity would be "conditionally acceptable," despite the fact that Mountain View voters rejected the idea by a 2-to-1 margin in 1996.
However, after 1997, it appeared NASA Ames officials accepted the community's opposition and moved on.
"They're working on uses the community seems to like," Siegel said, such as the possibility of converting Hangar One into an air and space museum.
"We feel like the community groups have been very successful at turning NASA around," he said. "They're not talking about any form of commercial aviation at Moffett."
In fact, the news coming out of Moffett last year was not so much about noise from airplanes as it was noise from NASA Ames public relations officials about myriad research and development undertakings.
In December 1998, NASA announced plans for development of the Ames Research Complex on the 2,000 acres Ames Research Center owns at Moffett Federal Air Field. The complex will be "a world-class shared-use research and development campus," said NASA Ames spokesman Michael Marlaire.
Stanford University and the University of California signed agreements in last December with NASA/Ames for operations at the complex, he said.
The open public area resulting when campus construction is complete is also the potential site for an 85,000-square foot computer museum, Marlaire said. And the U.S. Space Camp wants to expand there.
Earlier last year, NASA Ames officials said they were forming a virtual astrobiology institute to research the origins and evolution of life in the universe. The core staff works out of Moffett.
"Things are going great," Marlaire said.
NASA Ames and the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale are completing development of an integrated development plan for the property, which should be published in May or June, Marlaire said. The development plan will help corporations and organizations better understand how to partner with the three entities in development at Moffett Field.
The cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale are also partnering with NASA Ames on development of a non-profit California Air and Space Center. According to Mountain View Deputy City Manager Linda Forsberg, the three entities are presently working to identify appointees to the board that would oversee development of the Air and Space Center.
The six-member initial board will have two appointees each from Mountain view, Sunnyvale and NASA Ames. Plans call for an 11-member permanent board.
The center's purpose is to showcase achievements in air and space in keeping with NASA objectives. Activities and programs envisioned for the California Air and Space Center include a teacher institute offering short courses and symposia taught by NASA scientists and engineers. Interactive exhibits and a visitor information center are planned for inside and outside Hangar One. A state-of-the-art theater will present aerospace and related technological achievements, and be available for lectures and presentations. Plans also call for a space training center to provide residential and nonresidential learning-by-doing astronaut-type training for children and adults.
The city of Mountain View is also taking an active role in recommendations for military housing at neighboring Onizuka Air Station, Forsberg said.
With most of its functions being transferred to Falcon Air Force Base in Colorado, Onizuka Air Station is disposing of all but 111 of its 800 housing units.
NASA Ames Research Center and the U.S. Army have submitted letters of intent to use remaining housing to the Air Force Base Conversion Agency, Forsberg said.
The Mountain View City Council will review any reuse proposals against the following objectives, she said:
retention for military housing;
addressing Mountain View's interest in acquiring the 6-acre Shenandoah Square Housing Annex site at Moffett Boulevard and Middlefield Road for community use;
a mechanism to use some of the units to meet the city's affordable housing needs.
The city staff is talking with the U.S. Army about its plans for the surplus housing and waiting for word from the Air Force on its decision, Forsberg said.
Meanwhile, Alliance For A New Moffett Field continues to push NASA Ames officials on their issues, which include wetlands restoration of some 400 acres and establishing a bay trail.
"The Alliance doesn't believe there has to be a federal airfield there in the long run," Siegel said. "There's not a whole lot of demand for it."
Flights at Moffett are a mere trickle these days, compared to the peak Navy use in 1990 - 89,000 take-offs and landings recorded that year.
City officials favor annexation to Mountain View and Sunnyvale, Siegel said, but Moffett officials don't because they may feel bound by a whole new set of regulations. One such annexation attempt in 1959 failed.
So, as announcements continue to pour out of NASA Ames, Alliance members and local municipalities continue to watch, listen, react and recommend.
Said Orta: "It behooves us to watch until some of these things take over, or we will see bulldozers tearing up the field."