The Ariane guitar

 

A little more than 30 years ago (in December 1979, see this Enjoy Space feature), the first Ariane soared up into the Guiana sky. Today, Arianespace, the company tasked with selling launches aboard European rockets has become the market leader. And quite logically, the company is celebrating its 30th anniversary... with style and originality! For instance, on 30 July 2010 in California (Arianespace has many American customers), the legendary guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter was given a guitar made from a part of an Ariane 5.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, CEO of the company Arianespace, presents a very special space guitar to Jeff Baxter, a musician turned consultant in missiles and defence systems! Credit : Arianespace

By so doing, the rocket became linked with music. But the allusion actually made more sense than one might have thought as Jeff Baxter has switched from music to rocket technology, or to be more exact, that of missiles! Guitarist for groups such as Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, this brilliant musician even knew Jimi Hendrix when he started out. During his career, he has played for Bryan Adams, Eric Clapton, Donna Summer, Elton John and many others. In the middle of the 1980’s, Jeff Baxter became interested in compression algorithms and in equipment capable of storing large amounts of data; at the time this type of equipment often had military origins. This was when his neighbour, a retired engineer who worked on the programme for Sidewinder missiles (carried on combat aircraft), offered him a subscription to an aviation magazine. The publication kindled the guitarist’s interest in everything connected with missile technology. Self-taught in this field, he wrote a 5 page article in which he explained how to transform the anti-aircraft Aegis missile on board ships into a rudimentary anti-missile defence system. This unconventional analysis was the beginning of a new activity for Jeff Baxter, that of a top level consultant in the fields of missiles, defence and anti-terrorism. For this reason, he is a member of various official committees and has more than once been granted authorisation to access classified information. Obviously, by presenting a guitar made from a part of Ariane 5, Jean-Yves Le Gall has sort of come full circle and is paying tribute to an artist whose career has been unusual to say the least!

Press release from Arianespace

Published on 5 August 2010