Edwards AFB Still Makes Aviation History
Still a Leading Edge Flight Test Facility 50 Years On
Sep 10, 2009
Less than hundred miles North of Los Angeles lays a barren, wind-swept landscape called Mojave Desert. This unfriendly environment with blazing summer heat and bone-chilling winter nights is not much good for anything else but rattlesnakes and horned toads, some people say.
Yet, in all of this isolation, the High Desert offers unique gifts also: Endless days of crystal clear blue skies, dawns and sunsets with rocky mountain sides in breathtaking hues of color. And while the dry lakebeds in Edwards support little vegetation, it turned out to be an ideal place for pilots, flight researchers and engineers to test and explore new concepts of flight for over fifty years now.
Where Aviation history is made…
This is the place where most of the American aviation and space technology began. A birthplace for countless flight research and flight test projects writing the boldest chapter in the US space and aviation history.
From the legendary X-15 to the today’s leading edge F-22 – from the first American space flight – to the latest Discovery landing under the clear High Desert sky. For fifty years, Edwards always was – and still is – the probably most important place for the advancement of the US space and aviation technology. The future, however, does not look necessarily bright…
Lack of sufficient funding
Disintegrating infrastructure, an aging runway and out-of-date aircraft pool are threatening the ability of the Air Force Flight Test Center to perform it missions of providing the Air Force with the necessary cutting-edge technology. This stated Maj. Gen. Doug Pearson, former center commander, during a visit of a congressional delegation in Edwards.
Much of the Edwards’ infrastructure is as old as the base itself: Fifty years. Many facilities are suffering from the ravages of time so much that they cannot be repaired anymore. The average age of the support aircraft at the flight test center is about thirty years.
“Aircraft older than pilots”
Quite often, pilots are being trained in aircraft older than they are. Main problem: The older aircraft often do not have the capability to keep up with the new tested aircraft they are supposed to support. Just one example: The T-38 from the Sixties does not have the capability to chase the state of the art F-22. “We are testing the most modern airplanes with the oldest aircraft we have”, one engineer said.
Some Runways Virtually “Unusable”
The runway condition at Edwards were partly desperate. Two of the runways were “completely unusable for flight test purposes”, the public is told. Build in 1942 and 1943, the runways at the North and South base belong to the original infrastructure and are according to the Air Force now “beyond repair”.
The main base runway could face the same fate in less than ten years if no steps are take to repair them as soon as possible. In order to continue the Flight Center mission, an additional – parallel – runway must be build. The Air Force is in the process to address the issue and repair the runways.
Many other parts of the base’s infrastructure are also very depressing, such as the housing complex, dating from the 1950s and 1960s. These buildings now have a series of problems. Outdated electrical systems that cannot handle today’s electrical needs, structural problems and dissolving, rusty water lines are among them.
Amongst the biggest concerns is the asbestos found at many places here.
New Frequencies Needed
In order to provide a real-time data analysis from the air to ground, the flight-testing depends heavily on the telemetry. However, the center is very concerned about their testing limitations caused by the increasingly crowded frequency spectrum.
As more and more people use cell phones and other wireless technologies, there is less and less frequency spectrum available for flight test engineers, as Roger Crane, a senior technical advisor for the 412th Flight Test Wing has said to the media.
An example: One of NASA’s X-43 missions had to be shut down because of the lack of necessary frequencies, engineers are complaining.
Shared by Air Force and NASA
The still unique place of national importance is being shared by the Air Force and the NASA. Edwards made a wide variety of contributions over the years. Very often, the Center played a vital role in developing tangible items that were applied directly to the operational aircraft. The Center’s work on the F-100A, F-104, the F-111, and its later work with F-14 and F-15 spin testing fall into this category.
The digital electronic single engine control technology has been applied to numerous commercial engines, and the F-15 active program helped to a production version of the thrust-vectoring engine nozzle. Such a system, in turn, will draw heavily on the integrated engine and flight control research done with the F-15 HIDEC aircraft.
The super-critical wing and winglet concepts flown at Edwards have helped to make a whole generation of business and transport aircraft more fuel-efficient.
From the very beginning, the facility has been an unique place to the aeronautics and space research community. Over a half of a century, Edwards has grown form a desolate desert outpost to the nation’s premier flight test center. Without major budget improvements, this role will might be very much endangered.
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