Armstrong Flight Research Center

The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base 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 including critical support for the first manned airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight with the Bell X-1, highest speed ever recorded by a manned, powered aircraft (North American X-15), the first pure digital fly-by-wire aircraft (F-8 DFBW), and many others. AFRC also operates a second site in Palmdale, Ca. known as Building 703, once the former Rockwell International/North American Aircraft production facility, at Air Force Plant 42. There, AFRC houses and operates 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. David McBride is currently the center's director.March 1st, 2014 the facility was renamed in honor of Neil Armstrong, a former test pilot at the center and the first human being to walk on the surface of the moon. The center was previously known as the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in honor of Hugh L. Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who at the time of his death in 1965 was NASA's deputy administrator. It has also previously been known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Muroc Flight Test Unit (1945), the High-Speed Flight Research Station (1949) and the High-Speed Flight Station (1954).