
The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
. Its primary campus is located inside
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...
in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical research.
AFRC operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world and is known for many aviation firsts, including supporting the first crewed
airplane
An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...
to exceed the
speed of sound
The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elasticity (solid mechanics), elastic medium. More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel. At , the speed of sound in a ...
in level flight (
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces– U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by B ...
), highest speed by a crewed, powered aircraft (
North American X-15
The North American X-15 is a Hypersonic speed, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft which was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the List of X-planes, X-plane series of ...
), the first pure digital
fly-by-wire
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional aircraft flight control system#Hydro-mechanical, manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic sig ...
aircraft (F-8 DFBW), and many others. AFRC operated a second site next to
Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, known as Building 703, once the former
Rockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...
/
North American Aviation
North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...
production facility. There, AFRC housed and operated several of NASA's Science Mission Directorate aircraft including
SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), a DC-8 Flying Laboratory, a Gulfstream C-20A UAVSAR and ER-2 High Altitude Platform.
In 2024, following the retirements of SOFIA and the DC-8, NASA vacated Building 703, as the continued lease of the large hangar was no longer justified or a prudent use of taxpayer dollars. As of 2023, Bradley Flick is the center's director.
Established as the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...
Muroc Flight Test Unit (1946), the center was subsequently known as the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station (1949), the NACA High-Speed Flight Station (1954), the NASA High-Speed Flight Station (1958) and the NASA Flight Research Center (1959). On 26 March 1976, the center was renamed the NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) after
Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent
aeronautical engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
who died in office as NASA's deputy administrator in 1965 and Joseph Sweetman Ames, who was an eminent physicist, and served as president of Johns Hopkins University. The facility took its current name on 1 March 2014, honoring
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...
, a former test pilot at the center and the first human being to walk on the Moon.
AFRC was the home of the
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) are two extensively modified Boeing 747 airliners that NASA used to transport Space Shuttle orbiters. One (N905NA) is a 747-100 model, while the other (N911NA) is a short-range 747-100SR. Both are now retired. ...
(SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...
if one landed at Edwards.
The center long operated the oldest
B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic aircraft, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the ...
bomber, a B-52B (dubbed
Balls 8
''Balls 8'' is a NASA Boeing NB-52B mothership which was retired in 2004 after almost 50 years of flying service with NASA. The aircraft is famous for dropping the X-15 aerospace research vehicle on 106 of the 199 X-15 program flights.
I ...
after its tail number, 008) that had been converted to a
drop test
A drop test is a method of testing the in-flight characteristics of prototype or experimental aircraft, experimental aircraft and spacecraft by raising the test vehicle to a specific altitude and then releasing it. Test flights involving powered ...
aircraft. 008 dropped many
supersonic
Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...
test vehicles, from the
X-15
The North American X-15 is a Hypersonic speed, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft which was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the List of X-planes, X-plane series of ...
to its last research program, the
hypersonic
In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds five times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above.
The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since i ...
X-43A, powered by a
Pegasus rocket
Pegasus is an Air launch to orbit, air-launched launch vehicle, multistage rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and later built and launched by Northrop Grumman. Pegasus is the world's first privately developed orbital laun ...
. Retired in 2004, the aircraft is on display near Edwards' North Gate.
Location
Though Armstrong Flight Research Center has always been located on the shore of Rogers Dry Lake, its precise location has changed over the years. It currently resides on the northwestern edge of the lake bed, just south of North Gate. Visitors must obtain access to both
Edwards AFB and NASA AFRC.
The
Rogers Dry Lake bed offers a unique landscape well suited for flight research, namely, dry conditions, few rainy days per year, and large, flat, open spaces in which emergency landings can be performed. At times, the bed can host a runway length of over 40,000 feet. It is home to a compass rose that measures 5,200 feet across, and where aircraft can land into the wind in any direction.
List of current projects
*
X-59 QueSSTX-66 Sustainable Flight DemonstratorUAS in the NAS
*
TGALS
Historic projects
Douglas Skyrocket
NASA's predecessor, the NACA, operated the Douglas Skyrocket. A successor to the
Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
's
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces– U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by B ...
, the D-558-II could operate under
rocket
A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...
or
jet power. It conducted extensive tests into aircraft stability in the
transsonic range, optimal supersonic wing configurations, rocket plume effects, and
high-speed flight dynamics. On November 20, 1953, the Douglas Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly at over twice the speed of sound when it attained a speed of Mach 2.005. Like the X-1, the D-558-II could be air-launched using a
B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to ...
. Unlike the X-1, the Skyrocket could also
takeoff
Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff.
For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a tr ...
from a
runway
In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...
with the help of
JATO
JATO (acronym for jet-assisted take-off) is a type of assisted take-off for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets. The term ''JATO'' is used interchangeably with the (more specific ...
units.
Controlled Impact Demonstration
The Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint project with the
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
to research a new jet fuel that would decrease the damage due to fire in the crash of a large airliner. On 1 December 1984, a remotely piloted
Boeing 720 aircraft was flown into specially built ''wing openers'' which tore the wings open, fuel spraying everywhere. Despite the new fuel additive, the resulting fireball was huge; the fire still took an hour to fully extinguish.
Even though the fuel additive did not prevent a fire, the research was not a complete failure. The additive still prevented the combustion of some fuel which flowed over the fuselage of the aircraft, and served to cool it, similar to how a conventional
rocket engine
A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...
cools its nozzle. Also, instrumented
crash test dummies were in the airplane for the impact, and provided valuable research into other aspects of crash survivability for the occupants.
Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment
LASRE was a
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
experiment in cooperation with
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
to study a
reusable launch vehicle
A reusable launch vehicle has parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space. Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as fairings, booster ...
design based on a linear
aerospike rocket engine
A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...
. The experiment's goal was to provide in-flight data to help
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
validate the computational predictive tools they developed to design the craft. LASRE was a small, half-span model of a lifting body with eight thrust cells of an
aerospike engine
The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. Aerospike engines were proposed for many single-stage- ...
. The experiment, mounted on the back of an
SR-71 Blackbird aircraft, operated like a kind of "flying
wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...
."
The experiment focused on determining how a reusable launch vehicle's engine plume would affect the aerodynamics of its lifting-body shape at specific altitudes and speeds reaching approximately . The interaction of the aerodynamic flow with the engine plume could create drag; design refinements look to minimize that interaction.
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle
The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle or LLRV was an
Apollo Project
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...
era program to build a simulator for the
Moon landing
A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, including both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959.
In 1969 Apollo 11 was the first cr ...
. The LLRVs, humorously referred to as "
Flying Bedsteads," were used by the FRC, now known as the Armstrong Flight Research Center, at
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...
, California, to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed sp ...
in the moon's airless environment.
Aircraft on display
*NB-52B
Balls 8
''Balls 8'' is a NASA Boeing NB-52B mothership which was retired in 2004 after almost 50 years of flying service with NASA. The aircraft is famous for dropping the X-15 aerospace research vehicle on 106 of the 199 X-15 program flights.
I ...
NASA 008
*
Bell X-1E AF Ser. No. 46-063
*
F-104N - NASA 826
*
F-8 Supercritical wing - NASA 810
*
F-8 Digital
Fly-by-wire
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional aircraft flight control system#Hydro-mechanical, manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic sig ...
- NASA 802
*
F-15B ACTIVE - NASA 837
*
Grumman X-29 - NASA 849
*
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a retired long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. Its nicknames include " Blackbird" and ...
LASRE - NASA 844
*
Northrop HL-10 Lifting Body - NASA 804
*
Rockwell HiMAT
Gallery
File:Collection of military aircraft.jpg, The Dryden Flight Research Center's fleet of aircraft in 1997
File:Jfader dryden.jpg, The satellite image of Armstrong Flight Research Center and the Edwards compass rose
File:X-62 VISTA.jpg, F-16
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...
-based VISTA multifunctional testbed aircraft (former NF-16D and now X-62A) in 2019 under a new paint scheme
List of center directors
The following persons have served as the Armstrong Flight Research Center director:
Notable employees
*
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aerospace engineering, aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the Apollo 11#Lunar surface operations, first person to walk on the Moon. He was al ...
*
Marta Bohn-Meyer
*
Bill Dana
*
C. Gordon Fullerton
*
David Hedgley
*
Bruce Peterson
*
R. Dale Reed
*
David Scott
David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the List of Apollo astronauts#People who have walked on the Moon, seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the NASA Astronaut ...
*
Milt Thompson
*
J. Scott Howell
*
Kenneth W. Iliff
See also
*
Gromov Flight Research Institute - the Russia counterpart of the Armstrong Flight Research Centre
*
List of aerospace flight test centres
References
External links
''X-Press'' official newsletter''The Spoken Word: Recollections of Dryden History, the Early Years'' edited by Curtis Peebles
''Flight Research: Problems Encountered and What They Should Teach Us'' by Milton O. Thompson��The early days of the DFRC
{{Coord, 34, 57, 07, N, 117, 53, 08, W, region:US_type:landmark, display=title
Aerospace research institutes
Aviation research institutes
Buildings and structures in Kern County, California
Edwards Air Force Base
NASA facilities
NASA visitor centers
Space technology research institutes
Science and technology in Greater Los Angeles
Aerospace engineering organizations
Flight Research Center
NASA research centers