Voyager Turns 40: Mojave's Flight-Line Calendar From Veterans Day Through December

Where is the airplane Mojave built?

It hangs in the South Lobby of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., a long way from the airport where it started. The Smithsonian's record for Voyager says construction began in summer 1982 at the Civilian Flight Test Center at Mojave Airport. Four years later, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew Burt Rutan's design around the world without stopping and without refueling. They took off from Edwards AFB on Dec. 14, 1986, and landed there again on Dec. 23. The flight took 216 hours, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

That 40th anniversary falls this December, and it sits at the end of a season that keeps returning to the same few acres. From early November to the week before Christmas, almost every public gathering in Mojave takes place on the grounds of the Mojave Air and Space Port. The one major exception is the Veterans Day ceremony. The calendar starts with an aerospace conference, moves through two free Plane Crazy Saturdays and a holiday giveaway, and closes on Dec. 19. On that date in 1986, Voyager was still somewhere over the planet with four days of flying left.

The replica you can visit any time

You don't need a ticket or a special date to see Voyager in Mojave. The Mojave Air and Space Port says Legacy Park displays a Voyager replica alongside the Rotary Rocket Roton and a SpaceShipOne replica. The same page lists a CV-990, an F-4D Phantom and a Saab Draken at the airport entrance. The port doesn't offer public tours, but it welcomes visitors to Legacy Park and to its monthly Plane Crazy Saturdays.

Legacy Park is at 1434 Flight Line. Taken together, the displays there tell Mojave's aerospace story in a straight line. Voyager proved a small Mojave team could build an aircraft that set a world record. The Roton and SpaceShipOne show where the same flight line went next. A stop at the replica before Dec. 19 gives the anniversary program a physical reference point.

The Voyager Restaurant sits in the terminal building under the old tower, next to transient parking. The airport's About Us page lists its hours as Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The page carries no date, so check the hours before you go. For Plane Crazy Saturdays, the Mojave Transportation Museum gives general parking for the restaurant as 1434 Flight Line #58 and suggests arriving early if you want breakfast.

The season at a glance

Nov. 11 starts off the flight line

Veterans Day is the one big date this season that doesn't happen at the airport. The Loop's autumn event calendar lists Mojave's ceremony for 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Mojave Cemetery, 2040 Belshaw St. This year's guest speaker is Commander Marci Longoria, a U.S. Navy veteran and commander of VFW Post 9657 in Rosamond. After the ceremony, the community is invited to a veterans BBQ from noon to 2 p.m. at Mojave Elks Lodge #2059, 16200 K St.

The next morning, the calendar moves back to Poole Street.

Nov. 12–13: the industry comes to town

CAL-SPACE, billed as the first California Space, Propulsion and Aerospace Conference and Expo, runs Nov. 12 and 13 at the Mojave Air and Space Port. According to Mojave Beat, Thursday is devoted to leadership sessions and Friday covers innovation and workforce programming. Registration is open. The Mojave Desert News reports the event will be held at the Stuart O. Witt Event Center, 1247 Poole St., on the airport grounds.

Unlike the rest of the season, this one isn't a drop-in event. It's a professional conference with registration through the CAL-SPACE site. Its place on the calendar still says something. In 1982, construction on Voyager began at Mojave Airport. In 2026, the same airport is hosting a statewide gathering of the aerospace industry, with a full day set aside for workforce programming.

Nov. 21: a Mach 3 warm-up

Plane Crazy Saturday is the Mojave Transportation Museum's monthly aviation gathering, held on the third Saturday of each month with free admission. The November edition runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21.

At 11 a.m., retired Chief Master Sgt. Bob Garnica will speak in the Board Room on SR-71 Blackbird, U-2 and Mach 3-plus maintenance. The museum's event page says Garnica served 29 years in the U.S. Air Force specializing in aircraft maintenance. He supported the U-2 and SR-71 at Beale AFB and Kadena Air Base, working on flight controls, landing gear and canopy systems. Board Room seating is limited, and the museum takes RSVPs by email at [email protected]. The museum calls the hours a planning window and suggests checking with organizers for any changes.

November's talk covers the people who kept fragile, high-performance aircraft flying. That makes it a fitting lead-in to the Voyager anniversary a month later.

Dec. 12: Santa at the event center

The 5th Annual Toy & Christmas Tree Giveaway brings the season's family event back to the Stuart O. Witt Event Center, 1247 Poole St., on Saturday, Dec. 12, from noon to 2 p.m. The air and space port is co-hosting with the California Highway Patrol. The event lists Santa photos, refreshments, emergency vehicles and raffles, with a goal of giving away 40 Christmas trees and toys.

Five years in, it has become a December regular, held in the same building that hosts CAL-SPACE a month earlier.

Dec. 19: the anniversary, mid-flight

The museum's 2026–27 calendar lists Saturday, Dec. 19, 2026, as "40th Anniversary of the Voyager Flight." The museum hasn't posted program details yet, so watch its page as the date gets closer.

The date works well. Voyager took off on Dec. 14 and landed on Dec. 23, so the Dec. 19 program falls on a day when, 40 years ago, Rutan and Yeager were still in the air. Since Plane Crazy Saturday follows its third-Saturday schedule, the town will be marking the flight while it was still underway in 1986, not after the landing. Anyone who wants the full picture can spend the morning at the event and then walk over to the replica in Legacy Park.

The calendar keeps going after the anniversary. The January program, on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2027, features Steve Ericson, director of advanced design at The Spaceship Company. That moves the series from the airplane that started Mojave's record-setting reputation to the company carrying it forward.

What's coming for the road into town

Highway 14 through Mojave is on Caltrans' list too, but not this season. The Mojave Pavement Project covers about 21 lane-miles of SR 14, from north of Silver Queen Road to north of Business Route 58 in Mojave. Planned work includes pavement, pedestrian accessibility, curb ramps, sidewalks and intersections. Caltrans' tentative schedule calls for right-of-way certification in November 2026 and construction starting in May 2027. The November milestone is a paperwork step, so the drive to the airport events this winter shouldn't be affected.

A year bookended by anniversaries

Mojave began this fall with one milestone and ends it with another. The 91st Gold Rush Days, Oct. 2 through 4, marked the town's 150th anniversary with a free dance, a parade, art and car shows, children's activities and music in the park, according to Tehachapi News. The 150th celebrated the town. The 40th celebrates something the town made, and Mojave marks it from the same flight line where Voyager was built in 1982.

The Air and Space Port also lists public board of directors meetings on Nov. 17 and Dec. 1, each from 2 to 3:30 p.m., for anyone who wants to keep up with the airport itself.

If a morning at Legacy Park or a Plane Crazy Saturday has you thinking about a home closer to the flight line, or about what your own place near Mojave is worth, Team Terri J would be glad to talk it through. With more than four decades in the greater Tehachapi area, Terri Juergens and the team know the communities around the airport and can answer your questions whenever you're ready.