Message posted by Peter Merlin on February 18, 2014 at 9:38:17 PST:

Muroc Flight Test Base was built in the early 1940s as the secret adjunct to Muroc Army Air Base. The two facilities were located on opposite ends of Rogers Dry Lake, which was at that time divided by a railroad track. Muroc AAB was used for training fighter and bomber crews during World War 2. Muroc FTB was used for testing advanced technology projects such as television-guided remotely piloted aircraft, glide bombs, and unconventional aircraft configurations (semi-tailless, flying wings, jet-powered, etc.).

After the war both bases were consolidated into a single flight-test facility at Muroc Army Air Field under the jurisdiction of the Air Materiel Command. Muroc AAF was redesignated Muroc Air Force Base in February 1948 and became Edwards AFB in February 1949 in honor Capt. Glen W. Edwards. A new Main Base complex was built, and the original facilities became the North Base and South Base auxiliary fields.

North Base was used for a variety of projects including the Northrop F-89 and deceleration tests using a quarter-mile-long rocket sled track. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had a facility there for testing small rocket engines. The CIA established Detachment G at North Base in 1957, moving the agency's U-2 test operation there from Groom Lake.

In the 1970s, the Red Hats established their headquarters at North Base even though all of their flight testing actually took place at Area 51. In more recent times the Red Hats underwent a variety of reorganizations and the secure compound eventually became Electronic Warfare Directorate North Base (office symbol, EWAH). The facility and organization remain a point of contact and liaison between the Air Force Test Center and Detachment 3, and the North Base runway is used by the "Blue & White" (the Beech 1900 shuttle that commutes between Edwards and Groom Lake).

In Reply to: Re: Edwards posted by OldThudMan~!!~ on February 18, 2014 at 6:25:44 PST:

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