• November 20, 1978: USAF-German Joint Peace Rhine

    A test team began flights for Peace Rhine, a joint United States Air Force and German Air Force project to develop a new digital fire-control radar system computer for the F-4E and fighter  weapon systems.The McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom II is a twin-engine, two-seat multi-role combat aircraft

  • November 19, 2009: Ikhana MQ-9 Unmanned Vehicle Testing

    With an infrared sensor pod slung under its left wing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) remotely piloted Predator B aircraft, the “Ikhana,” conducted post-burn assessments of two Southern California wildfire sites – the Piute Fire in Kern County and the Station Fire in the

  • November 18, 1988: Aircraft Launch Interface Computer Testing

    The F-16 Combined Task Force conducted its first launch of a high speed antiradiation missile by means of the aircraft launch interface computer (ALIC) with AGM-65 Maverick missile software. This versatility indicated that the F-16 could perform a close air support (CAS) mission.The LAU-118/A

  • November 17, 2003: High Altitude Long Endurance Intelligence Sensor Testing

    A Global Hawk sortie confirmed the first successful operation of a German High Altitude Long endurance Intelligence (HALE ELINT) sensor. The UAV picked up radar transmissions from an emitter located at China Lake NAWC and forwarded them to a German Ground Support Station. This was the first step

  • November 16, 1969: Arrival of Personal Computers

    The Air Force Flight Center received a Burroughs B‑3500 computer with tape cluster.The B2500 and B3500 computers were announced in 1966. They operated directly on COBOL-68's primary decimal data types: strings of up to 100 digits, with one EBCDIC or ASCII digit character or two 4-bit binary-coded

  • November 15, 2009: Edwards Celebrates Winners With Balloon Ride

    A group from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Edwards Air Force Base and the local community gathered at the base for a different type of “first flight” – in hot air balloons. The event was hosted by the Air Force Flight Test Center commander, Maj Gen David Eichhorn, in an effort to recognize the base’s

  • November 14, 1997: X-33 Launch Pad Construction Began

    Construction began on a launch pad for the X-33. A key part of a planned X-33 launch complex on the east side of Rogers Dry lake near Haystack Butte, the facility would be equipped to raise the vehicle to a vertical launch position. Powered by liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the craft was designed to

  • November 13, 2008: F-35's First Supersonic Flight

    Lockheed Martin’s pre-production F-35 (AA-1) conducted its first supersonic flight on this day. The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) test vehicle attained Mach 1.05 during its 69th flight overall, which lasted 58 minutes. This brought the aircraft’s total flight hours to 95.5. The AA-1 was representative

  • November 11, 1964: C-141A Starlifter Non-Stop 15 Hour Sortie

    An Air Force Flight Test Center aircrew flew a C-141A on a nonstop 15-hour from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to the United States East Coast and back. The sortie, covering 6,535 miles, was conducted to evaluate the APN-151 Loran C radio navigation system.The term LORAN is an acronym derived

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