JUNKYARD WARS "FLIES" INTO RIDGECREST (July 27, 2002)

(Ridgecrest)--- The Learning Channel's most popular program, JUNKYARD WARS, which airs each Wednesdays 9:00pm, spent a week in the California desert community of Ridgecrest filming a competitive episode that mixed the history of the Wright Brothers with the excitement of experimental aircraft design and production.
"Just the idea of building a plane from used parts, scraps, chicken wire and chewing gum is an intriguing idea…for somebody else to try," noted local Film Commissioner Ray Arthur with a smile, "When Location Manager Rob Mendel explained the concept I knew Cuddeback Dry Lakebed would meet their needs."

The episode is titled, "FIRST FLIGHT," and is a tribute to those daring young men and their flying machines of the early 1900's. The production required a large tented area to house the ultra-light, experimental "Kitty Hawk"-like planes. The cast included three teams: USA, British and French, plus the hosts and a crew of nearly 100. Additionally, once the aircraft were flying, there was a need for a huge amount of open space to facilitate any possible set of circumstances, "If a plane is supposed to fly in a straight line and unexpectedly makes a 90 degree turn, they needed both air and ground to make a correction. Cuddeback's eight square miles of lakebed was a perfect match," according to Arthur.

Another advantage of this particular location was weather. Ridgecrest is located 2 ½ hours northeast of Los Angeles, in the Indian Wells Valley. This particular valley has the distinction of having more sunny days than any other location in the western hemisphere. And JUNKYARD WARS needed sunshine, no winds and warm temperatures. The Ridgecrest Regional Film Commission could all but guarantee those conditions.

If you're not familiar with the program, The Learning Channel's website explains,
If you locked Tim Allen, Mad Max and Monty Python in a garage, you'd end up with JUNKYARD WARS - the engineering contest of harebrained schemes, incredible tools, and lots and lots of duct tape. This program pits two teams of tool-toting gearheads against one another to see who can create the biggest, fastest or strongest whatever with parts they scrounge out of a junkyard.

For more information about JUNKYARD WARS, visit their website at
http://tlc.discovery.com. For more info on the Ridgecrest Regional Film Commission, visit our website at http://www.filmdeserts.com.