EDITORIAL : THE RIGHT STUFF; EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE CELEBRATES ITS GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY WITH A LEGACY OF THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST.

FIVE decades ago, a smattering of engineers from an aeronautics center in Virginia set up what they thought was going to be a temporary operation beside a dry lake in Antelope Valley about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.

The five engineers came to the Mojave Desert to test the X-1 rocket plane aimed at conquering the ``sound barrier.'' At the time, the fear was that trying to punch through the barrier would tear apart any aircraft.

A year later, a 24-year-old Army Air Force captain with a Southern drawl and brass-knuckles moxie by the name of Chuck Yeager climbed in the orange rocket and held on. Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, an achievement that ushered in the space age.

It would be the first of many accomplishments for the research station, originally called Muroc High Speed Flight Station and renamed NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base.

The X-1 rocket plane program wound up at Edwards, then known as Muroc Army Airfield, because of its remote location and its clear flying weather - visibility of 50 miles being common.

It turned out to be a perfect place for adventure and achievement. The list is long and illustrious of the center's advancements in space and aeronautics: The first flights at Mach 1 and Mach 2, flights to the edge of space in the X-15 rockets, contributions to the Apollo moon missions and to the design of the space shuttle all occurred there.

On Oct. 1, 1957, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics changed its name to NASA - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Two weeks later, the first X-15 rocket plane was rolled out, a needle-nosed aircraft that achieved flights reaching speeds of 4,520 mph and climbed to 354,200 feet in altitude, out at the edge of space.

It was the start of what has been deemed by aviation historians as the greatest flight test program ever conducted, bringing fame to the NASA operation at Edwards and a prosperous aeronautics industry to the region.

Through the 1980s, Dryden became the West Coast home for the shuttles, which landed on the same dry lake bed that the X-1 had used decades before.

As the 21st century approaches, Dryden will play a major role in the development of the X-33, a prototype of a spacecraft designed to replace the space shuttle. Dryden now has about 900 government and civilian contractor employees.

While it has grown from a small outpost to a full-fledged research center and helped turn Lancaster and Palmdale into important and thriving communities, Dryden's mission is still the same - to separate the real from the imagined.

The contributions Edwards Air Force Base and Dryden have made to history, to space exploration and to Southern California cannot be underestimated and should not be overlooked at this important anniversary. Our gratitude and pride are immeasurable.