PALMDALE, Calif. — A new addition to the Antelope Valley’s rich aerospace history has landed on the campus of the SAGE Magnet Academy that prepares middle school students for college and careers in aerospace.
Art Thompson, CEO of another “Sage,” SAGE Cheshire, the engineering and design company that ushered in the Red Bull Stratos “Free Fall from Space” project, unveiled a unique “history timeline” project April. 25, 2025, on the campus that is home to the SAGE Planetarium in Palmdale.
The SAGE acronym stands for Space and Aeronautics Gateway to Exploration and the magnet charter school prepares grades 6-8 to succeed in high school, and on the way to college for careers in science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics.
To help them stay focused and inspired, the project unveiled at PROMISE Plaza on the magnet campus provides a walking illustrated lesson that begins with high-tech illustrations and history from the dawn of powered flight forward.
A diorama encircling the plaza consists of eight large steel panels with precision-cut illustrations etched through half-inch stainless steel. The walking exhibition begins with the Wright Brothers and continues, panel, by panel, through to the cutting edge technology developments that carry us into the present, and toward the future.
The illustrations, developed and manufactured at Thompson’s SAGE Cheshire invention hive in Lancaster, were made with a water jet that cuts steel with 60,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, Thompson said.
“You look at these panels, these airplanes, and they are our community,” Thompson said at the Friday ceremony to unveil PROMISE Plaza, an outdoor space where students can trace their learning journey.
Thompson, speaking to dozens of dignitaries and elected officials said, “Palmdale School District is creating the next generation. It is those kids who are going to work in all the aerospace companies that create this technology. They are going to be the scientists, and technicians.”
Raul Maldonado, superintendent of the Palmdale School District that supports the Magnet Academy, said, “It is important for us to remember why it is, that we do what we do. This is an example of our ‘Why’ for the work we do.”
Each of the eight panels is illustrated with milestone air and spacecraft. A QR Code mounted on the panel provides detailed history and information.
Thompson notes that apart from the illustration of the Wright Flyer built by the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio, all the aviation milestones on the illustrated panels are aircraft and spacecraft that were designed, built or tested in the Antelope Valley.
Because of stainless steel fabrication the cut-steel panel illustrations at the 38060 20th Street East campus are weather-proofed against the elements, including the high winds that are a defining weather feature of the Antelope Valley.
“These panels will be here forever,” Thompson said.
Thompson worked with students from the academy who selected and submitted sketches of the air and spacecraft that they wanted to be illustrated on the panels.
Walking on from the Wright Flyer, the next panel depicts the twin-tailed fighter of World War II, the P-38 Lightning designed by Lockheed’s legendary designer Kelly Johnson, who would go on to found the Skunk Works. The same panel depicts the Bell P-59 AiraComet, the first U.S. experimental jet fighter.
The plane was tested in secrecy at Muroc Army Air Field, which would become Edwards Air Force Base after the death of test pilot Glen Edwards, who died piloting the YB-49 “Flying Wing,” which is depicted on the panel that shows the evolution of stealth aircraft.
“I am glad that they named this school SAGE, a name close to my heart because it’s on my firm, but I also would have liked them to name the school for Bob Cardenas,” Thompson said.
Cardenas was the World War II combat pilot whose B-29 bomber carried aloft the Bell X-1 rocket plane dubbed “Glamorous Glennis” by test pilot Chuck Yeager on his trailblazing flight through the sound barrier on Oct. 14, 1947. Also on that panel is an X-15 rocket plane of the 1960s flown by test pilot William J. “Pete” Knight.
“Cardenas was an immigrant who became an Air Force general,” Thompson said.
He cited many of the inspirational pilots aligned with the aircraft used in the history project, many of whom he knew personally, including Knight who flew the X-15 and was instrumental in securing state funding for the SAGE Planetarium.
“I was superintendent when we needed funding for the planetarium, and Pete Knight (who was then in the state Legislature), helped us to get it,” said Nancy Smith, now president of the Palmdale School Board of Trustees.
The project was about three years in the making, and under construction for the past 18 months.
Thompson lingered at the panel that illustrates the evolution from the YB-49 Flying Wing of the 1940s to the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to the B-21 Raider now in test and development. Thompson was deeply involved in design of the B-2.
The final panel in the series depicts one of Thompson’s many “brain child” initiatives, the Red Bull Stratos project that lifted parachutist Felix Baumgartner to altitude of 127,852 feet to free fall from space and break the sound barrier, and the Internet livestreaming records.
Also on that panel is the Voyager aircraft, designed by Burt Rutan, and flown by his brother Dick Rutan with co-pilot Jeana Yeager on the only around-the-world unrefueled flight.
“Dick Rutan was inspiring,” Thompson said. “We lost him recently. All of these people are inspiring.”
The PROMISE Plaza is on the SAGE campus next to the planetarium. The omnibus of panels illustrating the Antelope Valley’s rich aerospace heritage will be open for public access during Planetarium events held three times a month, and other public access events. Dates for public access astronomy events are on calendar at www.palmdalesd.org.
