Aviation’s Stars May Have Right Stuff for Westchester

Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and other landmarks may honor actors who play heroes with the right stuff. But Westchester celebrates the real thing.

Westchester’s “Flight Path�--a sort of Walk of Fame for the pioneers of aviation--is about to land at the, er, glamorous intersection of Sepulveda Boulevard and 89th Street. Or at least organizers would like it to.

Amelia Earhart and the Wright Brothers were not available, but Chuck Yeager, the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, zipped into town Thursday for a ceremony to help win city approval for the project.

“It’s not easy to come down here and be the only living person to be honored,� Yeager said.

Others that would be memorialized with plaques in the sidewalk include Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes and designers John K. Northrop, Donald O. Douglas and J.H (Dutch) Kindelberger, not to mention Earhart and those aeronautical Wrights, Orville and Wilbur.

One plaque would be devoted to Los Angeles Municipal Airport, now Los Angeles International Airport, where Douglas Aircraft, North American Aviation and Northrop all tested planes in the old days.

Although his 1947 flight across the sound barrier took place above what is now Edwards Air Force Base, Yeager said he often worked as a test pilot out of the old airfield that became LAX.

“You’re in the center of the aerospace industry--the history of it, anyway--and (the Flight Path project) should have been done a long time ago,� Yeager said.

Flight Path would also include displays of aerospace memorabilia and public art at local businesses. The first, a pillar with carved depictions of momentous events in aerospace history, would go up in a Ralphs parking lot.

But first, the city of Los Angeles will have to sign off on the idea. Councilwoman Ruth Galanter says she will help--and Yeager took note of it.

“Your councilwoman is doing a tremendous job,� he said. “I hope she doesn’t (complain) too much when we tear up her sidewalks.�

*

ALL THE NUDES: Strippers take their clothes off for a living, but it’s not just any clothing. It’s really a business outfit. And it’s hard to do your job without your outfit, be it power suit or see-through teddy.

Attorneys for the landlords of the former Twenty/20 club learned that when they finally managed to shut down the tony strip joint that thrived for a while in Century City’s ritzy ABC Entertainment Center.

The property owners argued successfully in court that the club was subleasing the space illegally and that the business was inappropriate--to say the least--for an upscale office building.

Yet the day after marshals arrived with a court order and changed the locks at the strip joint, plaintiffs’ attorney Charles Kenworthy got a surprise.

“My phone rang off the hook with calls from about 20 to 30 strippers wanting their clothes back from the premises,� Kenworthy said. “They wanted to go get another job that weekend . . . and they needed the costumes they danced in.�

As many as 70 exotic dancers came in to pick up their gear, Kenworthy said. The space is still vacant.