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Army Air Fields (WWII) · from 1933

Edwards Air Force Base

US Air Force base in California.

History

Edwards Air Force Base (AFB; IATA: EDW, ICAO: KEDW, FAA LID: EDW) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is Edwards, California. Established in the 1930s as Muroc Field, the facility was renamed Muroc Army Airfield and then Muroc Air Force Base before its final renaming in 1950 for World War II USAAF veteran and test pilot Capt. Glen Edwards.

Edwards is the home of the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Test Pilot School, and NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. It is the Air Force Materiel Command center for conducting and supporting research and development of flight, as well as testing and evaluating aerospace systems from concept to combat. It also hosts many test activities conducted by America's commercial aerospace industry.

Notable occurrences at Edwards include Chuck Yeager's flight that broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, test flights of the North American X-15, the first landings of the Space Shuttle, and the 1986 around-the-world flight of the Rutan Voyager.

Text from Wikipedia: Edwards Air Force Base, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

  1. 1910
    In 1910, Ralph, Clifford and Effie Corum built a homestead on the edge of Rogers Dry Lake.
  2. 1942
    In 1942, the training mission was transferred to IV Fighter Command, with Lockheed P-38 Lightning OTU training for the 78th and 81st Fighter Groups.
  3. 1943
    In 1943, a replica of a Japanese cruiser, nicknamed "Muroc Maru", was constructed in Rogers Dry Lake where it was used for bombing training until 1950.
  4. 1948
    Four months later, on 10 February 1948, Muroc AAF was re-designated Muroc Air Force Base with the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate military service.
  5. 1948
    The results from the first track prompted the Air Force to build a second in 1948.
  6. 1951
    Jurisdiction of Edwards AFB was transferred from Air Materiel Command on 2 April 1951 to the newly created Air Research and Development Command.
  7. 1965
    The SR-71's full capabilities remain classified, but the records set on 1 May 1965 included a sustained speed of 2,070 miles per hour (3,330 km/h) and an altitude of 80,257 feet (15 mi; 24 km).
  8. 2001
    The X-35A won the competition in 2001 and will eventually be built in various versions for America's flying armed services and for foreign air forces as well.
  9. 2008
    05L/23R is 12,000 ft × 200 ft (3,658 m × 61 m) and was constructed to temporarily replace 04R/22L while it was being renovated in 2008.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone at this base

A base history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

More history

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