EDWmedium airport

Edwards Air Force Base

Edwards, United States

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ICAO

KEDW

Elevation

2312 ft

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The Essence of Edwards Air Force Base

EDW

Location

Edwards · CA · United States

Position

34.911°, -117.886° · 2312 ft elev.

Visa & Entry

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TravelerPulse profile

Historic Air Force base and premier flight test center.

Opened

1933

Location

Edwards, United States

Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation located in the Mojave Desert of California, on the western edge of Rogers Dry Lake in Kern County. It serves as one of the most important military and aeronautical research facilities in the world, home to the Air Force Test Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory. The base is renowned for its role in aviation history, including the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager in 1947 and serving as an alternate landing site for NASA Space Shuttle missions. Its vast dry lakebed provides a natural runway of extraordinary length, making it ideal for experimental aircraft testing. As a military installation, Edwards AFB is not open to the general public for commercial aviation. Access is restricted to military, government, and authorized personnel, and the base primarily supports flight test operations, research, and development of advanced aerospace systems.

Getting to & from

The base is accessible by private vehicle via State Route 58 and State Route 14, with no public transit service to the installation.

Notable facts

›Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier here on October 14, 1947, flying the Bell X-1.
›Rogers Dry Lake provides a natural lakebed runway stretching approximately 7.5 miles, one of the largest in the world.
›Edwards served as a primary or alternate landing site for 54 NASA Space Shuttle missions.
›The base is home to the Air Force Test Center, responsible for testing virtually every U.S. military aircraft.
›The X-15 rocket plane, which set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, was tested extensively at Edwards.

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Encyclopaedia

Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is Edwards, California. Established in the 1930s as Muroc Field, the facility was renamed Muroc Army Airfield and then Muroc Air Force Base before its final renaming in 1950 for World War II USAAF veteran and test pilot Capt. Glen Edwards.

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