Ground-Level Monuments Honor Heroes of the Air : Aviation: Five pioneers receive a lasting tribute as the first to be enshrined on Lancaster Boulevard’s Aerospace Walk of Honor.

Everyone in the aeronautics community knew they had the right stuff, and now the city of Lancaster has made it official.

Chuck Yeager, Jimmy Doolittle, A. Scott Crossfield, Tony LeVier and Pete Knight--pilots who achieved dizzying heights in the early days of flight testing--on Saturday became the first to be honored on Lancaster’s Aerospace Walk of Honor.

“They’re sure a different breed of cat from the rest of us,” said George Root, vice mayor of Lancaster. “They’re internationally known for taking phenomenal risks in one-of-a-kind aircraft to learn the planes’ limits, and some of them did it right here in the Antelope Valley.”

Modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame and celebrity walks elsewhere, the sidewalk monument display has been shrouded in secrecy for months. Saturday morning, the five granite monuments were installed on Lancaster Boulevard, boxed in black crates and guarded by volunteers from the Civil Air Patrol. Each six-foot-tall, 675-pound monument bears a decorative, brushed aluminum medallion and the name of the recipient. The pilots’ names were announced at a $50-a-plate dinner Saturday night.

“We kept it secret because we wanted to build excitement in the community, very much like the Academy Awards,” said Nancy Walker, a spokeswoman for the city.

But Yeager, the legendary combat and test pilot immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff,” about the chutzpah of those pilots and astronauts, said in an interview last week that test pilots and movie stars are worlds apart.

“That’s a hell of a comparison--Hollywood movie stars and us,” Yeager, 67, said. “The test pilot lives a real life, not a fantasy. Basically, you have to remember, duty enters into it. That’s paramount.”

Yeager in 1947 was the first pilot in the world to break the sound barrier, even though he had two broken ribs at the time. Knight, 61, set the world’s speed record in 1967 by flying the X-15 at Mach 6, or 4,520 m.p.h., twice as fast as a .50-caliber bullet.

Two of the pilots, LeVier, 77, and Crossfield, 68, were civilians who helped design and test high-powered aircraft. Doolittle, 93, is a retired Air Force lieutenant general who made the first successful “blind,” or instruments-only, flight in 1929. He is also renowned for voluntarily leading a raid by 16 B-25 bombers against Tokyo on April 18, 1942.

So far, Lancaster has spent about $60,000, not including labor costs of city employees, for the Walk of Honor and the hoopla surrounding it this weekend, Walker said. Champagne glasses embossed in gold with the image of a test pilot and gourmet chocolates stamped with the same picture were to be given out Saturday night at the black-tie dinner to the 200 or so guests, including state Controller Gray Davis. Each pilot was also to be presented with a silver medal hung from a ribbon in the style of the Olympics, Walker said.

Today at 2 p.m., the monuments will be unveiled in a public ceremony at Lancaster Boulevard and Cedar Avenue, preceded by a private reception.

Every year, more monuments will be added to the Walk of Honor, which local city and military officials hope will become an attraction for aerospace buffs who already come to the area to watch space shuttles and the B--2 Stealth bomber flights. They also plan to build a museum at Edwards Air Force Base and add other attractions to the area to create an “Aerospace Heritage Trail,” similar to Boston’s Liberty Trail.

“The walk is something our children will be able to look at and understand that this is where the sound barrier was broken. This is what we accomplished,” said Tom Smith, a spokesman for the Antelope Valley-based Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

All of the pilots honored this weekend have flown at least once out of Edwards Air Force Base, located 30 miles northeast of Lancaster. The base, an important flight test center for decades, began attracting aerospace companies to the valley after World War II. Today, about 23% of the area’s work force, or 16,250 workers, are employed in the aerospace industry, according to the state Economic Development Department.

“We’ve been looking for a way for many years to publicly tie Lancaster and Edwards Air Force Base together, because it’s that bond that moved us away from agriculture to technology,” Root said.

Yeager said that, when he was stationed at Edwards in the late 1940s, he rarely visited Lancaster.

“It was just alfalfa fields. That’s all it was. Now, Highway 14 between 6 and 9 a.m.--you just don’t hack it,” he said, denying that he hot-rodded on the wide-open roads of his era. In “The Right Stuff,” Wolfe described the fliers engaging in “the military tradition of Flying & Drinking and Driving & Drinking.”

Yeager and the other pilots have been enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, the Wright Brothers’ hometown, said spokeswoman Kim Bramlage. But the Hall of Fame has been operating out of a tiny office in Dayton’s convention center since the center was remodeled a few years ago. All the pilots’ portraits, plaques and gold medals are in storage until the nonprofit organization can raise $12 million for a new home for the Hall of Fame, she said.

“There’s been a lot of heritage lost over the years,” said Doug Nelson, spokesman for the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, which will open in temporary quarters at Edwards next year. “These guys sat in cramped cockpits, all hot and sweaty, and took enormous risks. They’re worth honoring in the walk.”

5 WITH THE RIGHT STUFF

James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle, 93

Known as the granddaddy of test pilots. Played a leading role in developing aircraft instruments and made the first successful “blind” or instruments-only flight in 1929. Won a Medal of Honor for voluntarily leading a raid by 16 B-25 bombers against Tokyo on April 18, 1942. A retired Air Force lieutenant general, Doolittle lives in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Anthony W. (Tony) LeVier, 77

Made more maiden flights on untested aircraft than any other pilot. During 30 years of testing for Lockheed, he invented several safety and performance devices, including the Master Caution Warning Light system still in use today. Piloted the first flight to exceed 1,000 m.p.h. in a jet-powered aircraft. He lives in La Canada Flintridge.

Charles E. (Chuck) Yeager, 67

Legendary combat and test pilot immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff.” First pilot in the world to break the sound barrier (1947), even though he had two broken ribs at the time. Logged more than 10,000 hours in 180 different military aircraft. Now a retired Air Force brigadier general, Yeager lives in Cedar Ridge, Calif.

A. Scott Crossfield, 68

First test pilot to reach Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, in 1953. Made more rocket-powered flights than any pilot in history. Helped design the X-15, the world’s fastest, highest-flying, rocket-powered plane, for North American Aviation. He lives in Fairfax County, Va.

William J. (Pete) Knight, 61

Set the world’s speed record in 1967 by flying the X-15 at Mach 6, or 4,520 m.p.h., twice as fast as a .50-caliber bullet. One of only eight pilots to earn his astronaut’s wings by flying the X-15 above 50 miles into space. A retired Air Force colonel, he became the first elected mayor of Palmdale in 1988.