Air Force Flight Test Center: Edwards AFB

The historic silver plane to the left was introduced in 1942 by Bell and had GE jet engines. This model was our first military jet aircraft. However, Great Britain was the first allied country to use jets in combat in WW II (see camoflaged aircraft).

The more modern silver plane below is an F-86 Sabre. It was our first swept wing fighter and was initially tested at Edwards in 1947, produced the next year, and set a record of 671 mph. Over 8500 were eventually built and used by 20 different nations. During the Korean Conflict we lost 76 Sabres in combat, but we downed 792 Russian MIGs. That was a testament to our superior pilots as well as to our aircraft. The red and white fighter beside the Sabre is an F-16 Fighting Falcon first tested at Edwards in 1974. Thousands have been produced and are still being used today.

The sinister looking black aircraft (top) is the famous high-flying U-2 spy plane flown by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers, who was shot down by a missile during the Cold War years. President Eisenhower at first denied the Soviet allegation that we were flying over their country to spy. Later he had to acknowledge the fact when the Russians produced the surviving pilot and the
U-2 wreckage. Powers was imprisoned by the Soviets, eventually released and ultimately met his death in 1977 in Encino, CA as a traffic-copter pilot.