Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : B-2 Bomber to Make Public Flight at Show : Aviation: Up to 300,000 are expected at the Edwards AFB event. The C-17 cargo plane and F-117 stealth fighter will also be on display.

The bat-winged B-2 stealth bomber will make its first public flying appearance Saturday at the annual Edwards Air Force Base Open House and Air Show.

The one-day event at the flight test center on the edge of the Mojave Desert is expected to draw 250,000 to 300,000 people.

“The big event Saturday is going to be the B-2,” said Capt. Bill Gray, coordinator of the flying portion of the air show and open house.

B-2s have made only limited public appearances and only then as a static display kept at a distance from spectators. The base, home to six of the bombers, is conducting flight tests with them.

Also marking firsts at the air show will be the controversial C-17 cargo plane and F-117 stealth fighter, Gray said.

The C-17, also in flight test at Edwards, will be on display and do its first public flyby. While the Stealth fighter has appeared at other air shows, at the Edwards event, three of them will fly in formation with the lead F-117 expected to do some aerobatics.

In all, about 20 aircraft will be flown during the show, Gray said. Dozens more will be on display.

One setback for the 1993 air show, Gray said, was cancellation Wednesday of the scheduled appearance by the Thunderbirds. The Air Force’s aerobatic flying squadron canceled its performance at Edwards as well as a performance planned Sunday at Castle Air Force Base in Merced.

The appearances were canceled because the leader of the precision flying team is unable to fly due to back pain. Two of the squadron’s F-16s will be displayed and several of its members will be on hand.

The Edwards air show will officially begin at 10 a.m. with the breaking of the sound barrier by retired Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, who was the first person to break the sound barrier. He is expected to make the sonic boom with an F-15 or F-16.

Yeager, 70, first broke the sound barrier in his landmark 1947 flight of an X-1. He arrived at Edwards earlier this week to prepare for his Saturday flight, piloting an F-15 and F-16 on Wednesday.

The U. S. Army Parachute Team, dubbed the “Golden Knights,” is scheduled to do two jumps from a C-130 cargo plane.

And the Air Force Test Pilot School, located at Edwards, will do glider demonstrations as well as formation flights with several aircraft, including the T-38 trainer and F-16 fighter.

Exotic aircraft will also be represented. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards will have several research aircraft on display, including the SR-71 Blackbird, X-29, X-31 and F-104.

In addition, NASA spokesman Don Nolan said the modified 747 used to transport space shuttles from Edwards to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be on display. It is the first time that the plane has been displayed at the air show.

The Air Force will have many of its aircraft on display as well, including F-111, F-15 and F-16 fighters, a KC-135 refueling tanker and C-141 cargo plane.

Gray said people who attend the air show are able to see just about every aircraft the Air Force has in its inventory.

Edwards is about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Take the Antelope Valley Freeway to the Rosamond-Edwards AFB exit and head east.

Base gates will be open to the public at 8 a.m. Admission is free. Alcohol and glass containers are not allowed. For information, call (805) 277-NEWS.