Cities forming in mid-20th century

This is part two of a description of life in Antelope Valley during the 20th century and early 21st century, picturing new growth-time elements.

In 1962, Palmdale incorporated and promoted itself as “The First City in Antelope Valley.” Lancaster and California City subsequently became cities.

Then North American Aviation unveiled its gracefully designed supersonic bomber, the B-70, in Palmdale and it looked for a time that the manned-aircraft business had been regenerated.

But the B-70 program was short-lived, and it took a few more years for the Valley to regain its economic footing.

The year 1968 was one of the most newsworthy eras ever to be bannered on the front page of the Antelope Valley Press.

Three announcements were made:

• The Los Angeles Department of Airports was going to buy up 17,700 acres of land adjacent to the east side of Air Force Plant 42 for the future Palmdale Intercontinental Airport.

• Lockheed announced it would build a new facility to begin producing a huge widebody commercial jet — the TriStar L-1011.

• North American Aviation announced it would build the B-1 bomber at Air Force Plant 42.

The TriStar program peaked a decade or so later with 9,000 workers.

The B-1 project faced a go-and-stop pattern but in the 1980s there were 7,000 people working at the plant.

And that’s how it was back in the fabulous ’50s and nifty ’60s in the Greater Antelope Valley — two decades of change that provided a dramatic prologue to the much-more-urbanized region that now exists in the 21st century.

The ’80s, ’90s and 2020 brought more development including an industrial park in southeast Lancaster, a mall in Palmdale, more businesses, hotels and the traditional stores and restaurants all around.

Although several companies attempted to make profits on Palmdale flights, one after another had to close. The Palmdale Intercontinental Airport dream never became a reality and LAX and other LA metropolitan airports continue to serve millions of customers in overcrowded facilities where standing-in-line became grossly unpopular.

The Antelope Valley name sometime became Aerospace Valley, to brand the area as the world’s greatest aviation and space epicenters.

One of the most popular programs was the Palmdale-built space shuttle.

And the sonic booms go on throughout Aerospace Valley.

Mojave Airport became the Air and Space Port and is still an active facility for aviation and space flights.