X-planes: X-1 Through X-15

Edwards Air Force Base began life in September 1933 as the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range. By early 1942 the Flight Test Division at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio began looking for an isolated location to conduct flight testing of Top Secret aircraft. The 44-square mile Rogers Dry Lake located nearby the training base at Muroc provided the ideal location. Eventually, all of America?s early jets, both Air Force and Navy, underwent flight testing at Muroc, which quickly became synonymous with the cutting edge flight research of the turbojet revolution. By 1946, however, a new type of research activity designed to explore the most challenging unknowns of flight began. This was the dawn of the ?X-Planes.?