Edwards AFB News

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On March 23, 1948, the Douglas XF3D Skyknight made its first flight, with Douglas test pilot Russell Thaw at the controls. The F3D, a large twin-engine night fighter developed for the Navy, had been trucked in to Muroc Army Airfield from El Segundo, California, for its flight test program.

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On March 15, 2007, the YAL-1 Airborne Laser conducted the first in-flight test firings of its Target Illuminator Laser. Multiple beams of photons were directed against an NKC-135E Big Crow target aircraft off the California coastline. The kilowatt-class TIL tracks a potential target and measures

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On April 20, 1987, the new control tower was officially opened with the takeoff of an F-15. The new facility, which is stressed to withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake as well as 120-plus mph winds, replaced the 10-story red and white structure that had been a landmark since 1956. Today, the cab of

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On May 18, 1953, Jacqueline Cochran made two supersonic dives in a Canadian-built (Canadair) F-86E Sabre and became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound. Later that day she flew the same plane over Edwards AFB’s low-level course, a 12-pylon, 100-kilometer track, to a new women’s absolute

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On Sep. 13, 1985, at Edwards, then Maj. Wilbert D. “Doug” Pearson zoom-climbed a specially-configured F-15A to 38,000 feet and launched a Vought ASM-135A anti-satellite missile against an orbiting Solwind P78-1 satellite. The missile’s miniature kinetic-kill vehicle intercepted and destroyed the

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On Oct. 20, 1956, actor William Holden and other Hollywood personalities attended the grand opening of the new base theater and viewed a screening of “Toward the Unknown,” which had been filmed on the base. This marked the official opening of the new base theater.

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On Nov. 3, 1966, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie flights resumed as aircraft No. 1 made the first of nine flights in support of the National Sonic Boom Program. This was a joint NASA/U.S. Air Force research program, which concluded Jan. 31, 1967. 

  • This week in Edwards flight test history

    On Nov. 7, 2000, the Lockheed Martin X-35A accomplished its first aerial refueling.  During its 10th flight, the Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator completed four refueling evolutions from a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker at 23,000 feet and verified its compatibility with the tanker’s flow-field wake and