BASE PLAYS SUPPORT ROLE IN WAR AND PEACE, EDWARDS PUT TO TEST.EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - If Air Force warplanes go into battle over Afghanistan, nearly all of them first saw duty in the Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley . Nearly every type of the Air Force's frontline front·line also front line n. 1. A front or boundary, especially one between military, political, or ideological positions. 2. Basketball See frontcourt. 3. Football The linemen of a team. airplanes - from F-16 fighters to the B-2 stealth bomber to the C-17 transport - was tested at Edwards Air Force Base over the last three decades. ``Edwards' role is to support the war fighters. We make sure they have the best equipment possible,'' spokesman Dennis Shofner said. As the U.S. military readies for battle, Edwards' military personnel mostly will remain there. Its units are test and support units, not combat units. Some individual airmen may be sent on temporary duty with units in combat areas, as happened during the Persian Gulf war Persian Gulf War or Gulf War (1990–91) International conflict triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Though justified by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on grounds that Kuwait was historically part of Iraq, the invasion was presumed to be , but none has been so far, officials say. ``We do our wartime mission every day,'' spokesman John Haire said. ``We're the Air Force's center of excellence in research, development, test and evaluation.'' Edwards' test flights were shut down for two days after the terror attacks terror attack n → atentado (terrorista) terror attack n → attentato terroristico on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration's nationwide ban on flights. But the base is back in business, with heightened security and tighter scrutiny of people entering its gates. Close to 12,000 people work at Edwards, with nearly half of those employees of the Air Force Flight Test Center, the main unit. Others work for aerospace contractors, for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), , or for the Marine Corps helicopter wings stationed there. Military planes began using the base's dry lake beds in the 1930s, although Haire said civilian flight testing dates back before that. When the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. needed to test its first jet fighter Jet fighter may refer to:
The base's isolation was perfect for testing a plane in secret, and the dry lake beds provided ready landing strips for the first underpowered, unreliable jet engines. After the war, the lake beds provided landing grounds for experimental rocket planes Rocket planes or rocket aircraft can be subdivided by the few rocket powered aircraft to have existed. Some early attempts at flights used engines that might be considered the first 'rocket' powered aircraft. , like the X-1, in which Chuck Yeager  This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved. broke the sound barrier in 1947. The Air Force Flight Test Center was created at Edwards in 1951, in time for testing a new generation of jet-powered fighters and bombers. Among the planes undergoing tests now are all three Air Force bombers: the B-2 stealth bomber; the B-1B, built in the 1980s in Palmdale; and the B-52, built in the 1950s and 1960s. The base also has units testing the service's two topline fighters, the F-16 and F-15, both of which have been tested at Edwards since the 1970s. Edwards personnel are also testing the newest fighter, the F-22, of which only a handful have been made and which has not yet been assigned to combat units. Edwards also has tested the C-17 and C-141 jet transports and the smaller propeller-driven C-130 transport. Edwards also tests equipment other than airplanes, or airplane components. One was an experimental helmet that allows a pilot to steer a missile by turning his head. Test Pilot School students tested a G-suit that used liquid instead of air pressure to keep a pilots' blood from pooling in his extremities ex·trem·i·ty n. pl. ex·trem·i·ties 1. The outermost or farthest point or portion. 2. The greatest or utmost degree: the extremity of despair. 3. a. during extreme maneuvers. Much flight testing work is now done by computer modeling and simulation, which is cheaper than flying. When pilots take the plane up, they are then verifying that the simulation was correct. Many of the planes undergoing tests at Edwards have been flying for years. The testing now involves modifications, like improvements to their radar or aviation electronics, or trying them out with new types of bombs or missiles. By flying at Edwards, test pilots learn how modifications or hanging weapons on a plane changes air speed or maneuvering limitations. ``You want to reduce the risk for the ultimate customer, which is the pilot,'' Haire said. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) From the B-1, above, to the stealth bomber, right, Edwards Air Force Base in the Antelope Valley has tested them all. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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