Test Pilots’ Monument Draped in Secrecy : Commemoration: Granite ‘Walk of Honor’ on a Lancaster street to honor five aviators.

The secrecy surrounding preparations for the “Aerospace Walk of Honor” in Lancaster, a sidewalk monument display that will honor Edwards Air Force Base test pilots, rivals the secrecy of the pilots’ experimental flights.

Next month, city officials will launch the project by unveiling five granite monuments along Lancaster Boulevard honoring five distinguished pilots. The tribute is modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame and celebrity “walks” elsewhere.

This week, officials showed off the official logo that will appear on aluminum medallions affixed to each monument. It depicts a test pilot staring off into a sky streaked with jet trails.

But the names of the five pilots to be honored and the 10 other nominees remain a closely guarded secret. Officials have not disclosed the identities of the seven members of the panel that voted on the nominees; in fact, none of the members know the names of their colleagues on the panel.

Even the exact location of the Walk of Honor is unclear. Planners will only say that “pedestrian-size” monuments designed by a City Hall graphics artist will be placed along an unspecified three-block stretch of Lancaster Boulevard downtown.

“We are trying to keep it strictly confidential,” said Assistant City Manager Dennis Davenport. “The intent is to maintain the integrity of the program. We want to avoid any pressure from peers or the public and prevent anyone from lobbying on behalf of nominees.”

Many of the nominees, whose service spans 48 years of flight testing at the base 20 miles north of Lancaster, are internationally known and include pilots who later became astronauts, officials said.

Asked if the list includes Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) or Chuck Yeager, two of the most widely known test pilots, Davenport said: “People who have accomplishments like that are certainly being considered. These are the best of the best in a profession that is extraordinary.”

But Lancaster spokeswoman Nancy Walker said fame is not the only qualification.

“They are looking at a history of achievement in the field, people who have been continuously outstanding, not just one thing that brought them media attention,” Walker said.

The Aerospace Walk of Honor is believed to be the first such tribute in the nation, officials said. There is an aviation Hall of Fame in Ohio, officials said, but Lt. Col. Jan Dalby of Edwards Air Force Base said, “As far as we know, there is no other test-pilot walk of fame in the country.”

City Council members first proposed the idea in 1982 but then shelved it because of the need to revitalize the aging Lancaster Boulevard commercial strip. Like other old downtown areas, Lancaster Boulevard had deteriorated with the growth of outlying shopping malls. A performing arts center under construction and a historical museum are among recent redevelopment projects in the area that has been chosen for the monuments.

City officials hope the monuments will draw tourists to the area by promoting the Antelope Valley as an aerospace center and capitalizing on Edwards and Plant 42, a Palmdale manufacturing center for experimental military aircraft. They are targeting aerospace buffs who already visit a museum at Edwards and drive long distances to watch space shuttles and the B-2 Stealth bomber flights.

The selection panel consists of military, commercial and private aviators, an aerospace historian, a representative of the locally based Society of Experimental Test Pilots and two civic leaders. If the project goes well, five more pilots will be honored next year, Walker said.

The Walk of Honor will cost the city about $60,000 when complete, Davenport said.