NASA's research centre at Edwards Air Force Base, Rosamund, California. Experimental aircraft have been flown there since the late 1940s. NASA's first flight of the rocket-powered X-15 aircraft took place in March 1960. The prototype for the space shuttle was first tested in 1977, and the first space shuttle, Columbia, landed at Edwards in April 1981. Dryden also developed NASA's prototype crew return vehicle, the X-38, which was cancelled in 2001. The X-43A hypersonic research aircraft, a joint project of Dryden, NASA's Langley Research Center, and industry partners, broke the aeronautical speed record on 27 March 2004, flying at over Mach 7, or about 8 000 kph.

The centre was dedicated in 1976 to Hugh Dryden, a former deputy director of NASA who established the first facility at Edwards. On 1 March 2014 NASA renamed the facility the Armstrong Flight Research Center, in honour of Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/history/index.html Contains a complete history and overview of the facility, including modern and historical images, an outline of past and present projects, and more.