Air Force Capt. Nicholas "Hammer" Helms gets down from a T-38 trainer jet after a flight at Edwards Air Force Base. He is training to be the nation's first drone test pilot. His job will be to give feedback to drone builders and develop the protocols for flying them. (Al Seib, Los Angeles Times / February 9, 2011)Nation's First Drone Test Pilot Trainee Has The Right-Click Stuff -- L.A. Times
Unlike his brethren who risked their lives in experimental aircraft, Air Force Capt. Nicholas Helms will push the limits of what unmanned planes can do from the comfort of a computer workstation on the ground.
No place tells the story of modern aviation better than the skies over the desolate Mojave Desert surrounding Edwards Air Force Base.
This is where a 24-year-old Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier flying a fat orange jet called the Bell X-1 in 1947, and where the sleek rocket-powered North American X-15 became the first airplane to reach outer space in 1963. The space shuttle made its first landings here too.
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