Pilot of Russian transport plane to speak at Plane Crazy event
MOJAVE — As a NASA engineer working in Russia shortly after the end of the Cold War, Glenn Bever found he needed more than his technical skills to navigate the environment of a joint research program where his colleagues spoke no English and had only recently seen each other as adversaries.
Between 1995 and 1999, Bever was on-site in Moscow working to get a retired Tu-144 supersonic transport airplane flying again and outfitted to support NASA’s High Speed Research Program. The Tu-144 was an early competitor to the Concorde.
Bever has collected his experiences in a book, “Russian Encounters,” and will share the stories in person on Saturday at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
The presentation begins at 11 a.m. in the board room, in the Administration Building at the end of Airport Boulevard.
Seating is limited and visitors are asked to RSVP
to info@mojavemuseum.org. Bever will have some copies of his book on Saturday, and a book-signing event is scheduled at 1 p.m. May 25 at the Barnes & Noble in Palmdale, 39228 10th St. West.
Plane Crazy Saturday is a monthly gathering of aviation enthusiasts presented by the Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation.
The free, family-friendly educational event features a flight line filled with aircraft of varied types and vintages, available for visitors to see up-close.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission to the flight line with its displays is through the Voyager restaurant, in the Administration building. The restaurant opens for breakfast at 8 a.m.
Dogs and other animals, other than service animals, are not permitted on the flight line.
Aviation and space art, hats, shirts, books and collectibles will be available for sale.
Bever spent his entire 42-year career at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, where he was named the center’s first emeritus engineer and still keeps a hand in aerospace research.
He retired as the deputy director for research and engineering, and previously served as chief of the flight instrumentation and flight systems branch.
Among the many projects during his four decades, he served as chief engineer for the F-18 Automated Aerial Refueling and C-17 research flight computing system projects.
Much of his career involved developing embedded systems for research aircraft, including everything from an Army OV-1 propeller aircraft to supersonic fighters and the SR71.