THE HIGH-SPEED FLIGHT STATION

On 30 September 1946, Walter C. Williams and four other engineers from NACA Langley arrived at the Muroc Army Air Field to assist in flight-testing the XS-1. It was supposed to be a temporary assignment, and the group did not even have an official name, although they called themselves the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit. This marked the beginning of the joint USAF-NACA research airplane program that would culminate with the X-15. The NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit received permanent status from Hugh Dryden on 7 September 1947, with Walt Williams named as head of a group that now numbered 27 people.[8]

By the time the NACA redesignated the unit the High-Speed Flight Research Station (HSFRS) on 14 November 1949, roughly 100 people worked for Williams, who was named chief of the station. In February 1953, the Air Force formally leased 175 acres at the north end of the main taxiway to the NACA for a permanent installation.[9]

On 26 June 1954, the now-200-strong NACA contingent moved from its primitive quarters on South Base to a new headquarters, located in Building 4800 on the north side of the new Edwards flight line. This building still serves as the core of the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). The new facility cost $3.8 million. In contrast to the small NACA station at Edwards, the Air Force contingent at the AFFTC numbered over 8,000. The NACA organization was renamed the High­Speed Flight Station (HSFS) on 1 July 1954, with Williams still in charge.-10

On 27 January 1953, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at the site of the future NACA High­Speed Flight Station on the new main base at Edwards AFB. Shown in the photo are (left to right) Gerald Truszynski, Head of Instrumentation Division; Joseph Vensel, Head of the Operations Branch; Walter Williams, Head of the Station, scooping the first shovel full of dirt; Marion Kent,

Head of Personnel; and California state official Arthur Samet. (NASA)

On 1 October 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) replaced the NACA, and on 27 September 1959, NASA Headquarters redesignated the HSFS the Flight Research Center (FRC). By the time the station became a center, Williams was gone. At the behest of Hugh Dryden, on 14 September 1959 he had joined Project Mercury (the first American manned space effort) as its operations director. In his place came Paul F. Bikle, a Pennsylvanian with long experience in flight-testing at the nearby AFFTC. Bikle replaced Williams on 15 September 1959, oversaw its transition to the FRC, and remained for the next 12 years. Bikle believed in doing things quietly and with a minimum of fuss and outside attention. "Under Paul Bikle," one engineer recalled, "we were well aware that headquarters was 3,000 miles away." Like Williams before him, Bikle impressed those who encountered him with his bluntness, drive, and engineering sense.-1111

The first challenge faced by Bikle was shifting from planning for the X-15 program to conducting it. He needed people, and asked Ira Abbott at Headquarters for authority to add 80 new positions to the rapidly growing X-15 team. The personnel and facilities at the FRC expanded throughout the 1960s, with the budget going from $3.28 million in 1959 to $20.85 million in 1963, and to $32.97 million in 1968. The staff went from 292 to a peak of 669 in 1965; by the end of the X – 15 program, the staff was down to 566.-112

The employees of the NACA High-Speed Flight Station are gathered for a 1954 photo shoot on the front steps of building 4800, the new NACA facility at Edwards AFB. This new building was considerably larger than the earlier NACA buildings on South Base to support a staff that had increased from 132 in 1950 to 250 in 1954. As the workload increased and more research flights were completed the complement of employees grew to 662 in 1966, largely the result of the X-15 flight program. (NASA)