WEBVTT

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So let me start with a

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quote from an old wing deputy commander

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here of the 412 test wing . He called

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the sky above Edwards Air Force base a

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cathedral to aviation and I frequently

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steal the line because it's so accurate .

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We came out here as an air force

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starting in 1933 before the air force

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existed . There was a base here after

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world war two , they moved all of

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experimental flight test out here in no

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small part due to the successes of the

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X One team including Bob Cardenas ,

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Jack Ridley and Chuck Yeager to break

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the sound barrier , which happened here

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in 1947 . And since then ,

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air force test has been done here for

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flight testing because we have more

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than 300 days per year of flyable

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weather . And the lake bed has saved

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billions of dollars of air force

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equipment and more importantly ,

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hundreds of airmen's lives when they

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have to set down in emergency landings .

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Rogers dry lake bed originally named

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Rodriguez dry Lake bed is roughly 40

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plus square miles of almost perfectly

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flat bentonite clay , which is a

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natural flame retardant . We have

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multiple runways across the lake bed ,

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even to this day that can be used for

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emergency landings . It's one of the

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reasons that the shuttles landed here .

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Originally , Brigadier General Albert

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Boyd , who is often called the father

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of modern flight test , described it as

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God's gift to the US Air Force because

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it was the perfect place to test all

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kinds of experimental aircraft . So

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that's why we're here . It's a wide

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open space to do what we need to do to

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test America's air power tools

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so that they are not only effective but

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also safe for the pilots who will fly

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them in the service .