MARCH AIR reservation BASE.

MARCH AIR reservation BASE, Calif.

--In the early days of aviation, March Air reservation Base was the place to be. This airfield just southern of Riverside, Calif., saw commanders like Lt Col Henry "Hap" Arnold and Maj. Carl Spaatz. In the 1930 March Field was a training land for pilots many of whom appoint records.

On a certain quantity of levels, it seems like March hasn't changed a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of The old hospital still stands as headquarters for 4th Air Force, and Arnold's house is still there. The base historic district anticipates strikingly like it did in the 1940s

yet then a little Jetsons-like vehicle zips up to the pre-World War II buildings and creates quite a contrast.

It's a "GEM"--for Global Electric Motor Corp.--and the vehicles have taken the place of the gas-guzzlers in March's maintenance fleet

They move on on electric power. Plug them in, and they exhaust about the same electricity as a blow-dryer single in kind charge can last for a week.

"It's in deed cents a day. Compare that with gasoline-powered vehicles, which can journey through a quarter of a tank a day," said Dave McPhee, base civil engineer for the 452nd Air Mobility Wing. "It's not that we're vast polluters with our cars to begin with, however it makes sense to do everything we can." Electric vehicles became part of the arm of the sea when March was realigned as a store up base in 1996. Accordingly, their allotment of vehicles for civil engineering dropp from 11 to just three

"My environmental flight reminded me that there were changing technologies and we could use environmental monies to purchase golf carts at the time. And that's exactly what we did," McPhee said. "Our first foray into electric vehicles was permanent funded by environmental pollution prevention funds"

At first, they tried golf carts. if it were not that golf carts only go about 16 mph A line of cars waiting behind a cart forward March's main drag was a safety

hazard, likewise McPhee looked at other options. The jewels can go 25 mph--the base spe limit--and feature transfer signals, horns and headlights. They're also remarkably versatile.

"They follow with optional four seats, stake beds and prolonged beds. You can get ladders, shovel and compressors in there," he added. "They have big fat tires for a like reason you can drive up in succession sidewalks, over curbs and across sprinklers."

Electric vehicles aren't stocked with environmental money anymore since they're no longer an experiment, unless civil engineering doesn't have a puzzle paying for them out of its budget

"Here's a case where our environmental team leaned forward, saw the issue and acquired environmental foundations for it." McPhee said. "The base is demonstrating to the local communities that March is making each effort at reducing air pollution and couserving energy"

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