  Location within California | |
Former name | Air Force Flight Test Center Museum[a] |
|---|---|
| Location | Rosamond, California |
| Coordinates | 34°54′43″N 117°55′16″W / 34.912°N 117.921°W / 34.912; -117.921 |
| Type | Military aviation museum |
| Website | flighttestmuseum |
The Air Force Flight Test Museum is an aviation museum located at Edwards Air Force Base near Rosamond, California focused on the history of the Air Force Flight Test Center.
The Flight Test Museum Foundation was founded in 1983 by Carol Odgers, Chuck Yeager, Robert Cardenas, and William J. Knight.[3] A 335-acre site on Rosamond Boulevard was given to the foundation in 1984 to build a museum, but construction was delayed for many years. In the intervening time, the museum moved forward with the creation of the Blackbird AirparkatAir Force Plant 42 in 1991 and began collaborating with a group of amateur archaeologists to display pieces of wreckage of crashed x-planes recovered from the desert.[4][5][6][7]
By 1997, the museum had raised enough money to begin construction on a new 8,500 sq ft (790 m2) building, which was fitted out in 1999 and opened in July 2000.[8][9][10] Further efforts led to the opening of a Century Circle outside the west gate in August 2007 made up of six Century Series airplanes and the top of the former Edwards Air Force Base control tower.[11][12] The museum's longtime chief historian, Dr. Jim Young, retired in 2011.[13]
Efforts to move aircraft to better storage conditions began in March 2012, when the museum cleaned up its storage yard.[14] This was followed by a number of significant moves in 2013, with the restoration shop being relocated to a new hangar with better equipment in February, three aircraft being towed to the museum grounds in August, and a VH-34 being transferred to a museum in Texas in September.[15][16][17]
After its closure in 2015, an XB-47 was acquired from the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum.[18]
The museum broke ground on a new location outside the gate to the base in March 2018.[19][20] Following site preparation, the first concrete was poured in June 2020.[21] The first phase of construction was completed in May 2023.[22]
