FReeper Canteen ~ Road Trip: Edwards Air Force Base, California ~ 05 June 2018

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~

Road Trip: Edwards Air Force Base, California

Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley. Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing.

The base is strategically situated next to Rogers Dry Lake, a desert salt pan; its hard playa surface provides a natural extension to Edwards' runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the base a perfect site for flight testing. The lake is a National Historic Landmark.

Designated as the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards is home to the United States Air Force Test Pilot School and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Almost every United States military aircraft since the 1950s has been at least partially tested at Edwards, and it has been the site of many aviation breakthroughs as a result.

The Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is the Air Force Materiel Command center of excellence for research, development, and test and evaluation of aerospace systems for the United States and its allies.

It also operates the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and supports non-military government agencies. The combat, combat support and training capabilities of most of the Air Force's weapons systems were first proven here, giving the AFFTC a direct link to each of the Air Force's core competencies.

The most recent projects at Edwards are the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F-22 Raptor, RQ-4 Global Hawk, YAL-1 Airborne Laser and B-52 synthetic fuel program. In addition, the C-17 Globemaster III flight test program is another major project at Edwards AFB. As well, the Department of Defense's massive development on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has seen significant testing of prototypes at Edwards.

Learn More About Edwards Air Force Base HERE!

The Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC) Museum is an Air Force Field Museum operating within the guidelines of the USAF Heritage Program. Its mission is to collect, interpret, preserve, and display the material history of the AFFTC, Edwards Air Force Base and its antecedents, and the history of USAF flight testing.

There are currently over 80 aircraft in the museum's collection, with 40 on display (36 at Edwards and four at the AFFTC-managed Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale) and the remainder in storage or restoration. Other artifacts in the collection include aircraft propulsion systems, missiles, hardware, life support equipment, technical drawings, test reports, personal memorabilia, photographs, and wind tunnel models.

Visit The Air Force Flight Test Center Museum HERE!

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT~Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before.

Please remember: The Canteen is a place to honor and entertain our troops. The Canteen is family friendly. Let's have fun!

We pray for your continued strength, to be strong in the face of adversity.

We pray for your safety, that you will return to your families and friends soon.

We pray that your hope, courage, and dignity remain unbroken, so that you may show others the way.

God Bless You All ~ Today, Tomorrow and Always

Dad didn’t talk about work very much at all. He couldn’t. I learned more about what he did from the little memoir he wrote for us kids a couple of years before he died, and that still didn’t say much. One paragraph pertained to the time period when he met Neil.

“My final effort at the AEDC was bringing on-line and operating a medium-sized transonic wind tunnel (called 4T) where the primary activity was related to the dropping, or firing, of various weapons or other stores from military aircraft. At one point, I was one of the most knowledgeable people in the country in the techniques of dynamic-drop model design and testing. In this activity, I was the supervisor of a group of about a dozen test project engineers in the conduct of customer test programs.”

Why Neil was at a lecture about this, I don’t know, but he was. My brother flew out there with Dad that trip, though he had to wait elsewhere on the base while Dad gave the lecture. He was disappointed he didn’t get to meet Neil, too, but he still had a great time. Said he met a lot of nice people and got a little tour of the base. I’m still green with envy. :-)

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