Glen Edwards (pilot)
Encyclopedia
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
for the U.S. Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, and is the namesake of Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
.
Edwards was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat, known to locals as "The Hat", is a city of 61,097 people located in the southeastern part of the province of Alberta, Canada. It is enclaved within Cypress County along with the nearby Town of Redcliff, although neither is part of the county....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he lived until 1931. At age 13, his parents moved the family to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, settling in Lincoln
Lincoln, California
Lincoln is a city in Placer County, California, United States located in the metropolitan area of Sacramento. The population was 42,819 at the 2010 census, with a growth rate of 282.1 percent since 2000 , making it the fastest growing city in the U.S...
, northeast of Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
. He maintained dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship throughout his life.
After graduating with a degree in chemical engineering
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, Edwards enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
on July 15, 1941, five months before Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
. Upon completion of flight training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
at Luke Field
Luke Air Force Base
Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located seven miles west of the central business district of Glendale, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is also about west of Phoenix, Arizona....
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, in February 1942. Assigned to the 86th Light Bombardment Squadron of the 47th Bombardment Group, he departed for the North African theater of operations (Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
) as a flight commander in October 1942. There he led his flight of A-20s on extremely hazardous, low-level missions against German tanks, convoys, troop concentrations, bridges, airfields and a variety of other tactical targets.
When the Germans broke through the Kasserine Pass in February 1943, his undermanned and undersupplied squadron flew eleven missions in a single day, repeatedly attacking advancing armored columns and blunting their thrust. On one of these missions, Edwards and his crew set a record by completing a combat mission – from takeoff to landing – in just 19 minutes. His squadron received a Distinguished Unit Citation for this action.
During his tours in the North African campaign and the invasion of Sicily, Edwards completed 50 combat missions and was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and six Air Medal
Air Medal
The Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States. The award was created in 1942, and is awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.-Criteria:...
s.
Returning to the United States in December 1943, he was assigned to the Pilot Standardization Board at Florence Army Air Field, S.C.
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and then, in late 1944, to the Flight Test Division at Wright Field
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. He graduated from the Flight Performance School (initial designation of the USAF Test Pilot School
Test Pilot School
There are several test pilot schools and around the world, formed after the example of the original Empire Test Pilots' School in the UK. All have similar missions: to train already experienced pilots to test new and experimental aircraft. Many test pilot school graduates in the U.S...
) there in May 1945 and was assigned to the Bomber Test Operations Section.
Though assigned to Wright Field, he spent much of his time at Muroc Army Air Field
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
, on California's high desert, testing a wide variety of experimental prototypes such as Douglas' highly unconventional pusher
Pusher configuration
In a craft with a pusher configuration the propeller are mounted behind their respective engine. According to Bill Gunston, a "pusher propeller" is one mounted behind engine so that drive shaft is in compression...
-prop light bomber, the XB-42 Mixmaster
XB-42 Mixmaster
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920. London: Putnam, 1979. ISBN 0-370-00050-1.* O'Leary, Michael, ed. "Elegant Failure." America's Forgotten Wings, Volume 1, 1994, pp. 4–11....
. Indeed, in December 1945, he and Lt. Col. Henry E. Warden set a new transcontinental speed record when they flew this airplane from Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, to Bolling Air Force Base
Bolling Air Force Base
Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling is a military installation, located in Southeast Washington, D.C., established on 1 October 2010 in accordance with congressional legislation implementing the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission...
, in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, in just 5 hours, 17 minutes.
In 1946, he was the principal project pilot for the jet-powered Convair XB-46
Convair XB-46
|-See also:-External Links:*...
prototype bomber. It was also during this period that he acquired his first experience with a flying wing, as he familiarized himself with the flying qualities of the Northrop N-9M
Northrop N-9M
The Northrop N-9M was a one-third scale aircraft used for the development of the Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 Flying Wing long-range bomber program...
, a single-seat, one-third scale mock-up of the giant XB-35
Northrop YB-35
The Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 were experimental heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Army Air Forces during and shortly after World War II by the Northrop Corporation. It used the radical and potentially very efficient flying wing design, in which the tail section and fuselage are...
prototype bomber. Living modestly on a captain's salary at the time, he also somehow managed to help put two of his nephews through college.
His superb skills as a pilot, engineer and officer were held in such high esteem that his immediate superior, Major Robert M. Cardenas
Robert Cardenas
Robert L. "Bob" Cardenas is a retired Brigadier General of the United States Air Force.-Childhood and adolescence:He was born in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. When he was five, his family moved to San Diego, California. He excelled in Mathematics and Physics in high school...
, recommended him as project pilot for an unprecedented program – the first attempt to exceed the speed of sound in the Bell X-1
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army/US Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built over 1945, it eventually reached nearly 1,000 mph in 1948...
. That assignment, however, went to Capt. Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
.
Edwards was, instead, selected to be among the first to be sent to Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
for graduate study in the aeronautical sciences. The recent war had spawned truly revolutionary advances in aviation technology and it had become apparent to men such as Col. Albert Boyd
Albert Boyd
Albert Boyd was a pioneering test pilot for the United States Air Force. During his 30 year career, he logged over 23,000 hours of flight time, flying an astounding 723 military aircraft...
, the chief of the Flight Test Division, that a new breed of military test pilot – one who combined the talents of a highly skilled pilot with the technical expertise of an engineer – would be required to effectively evaluate increasingly complex aircraft and onboard systems. Thus, when Glen Edwards graduated from Princeton with a masters of science in aeronautical engineering in 1947, he represented one of the first of this new breed.
In May 1948, he was selected to join the team of test pilots and engineers at Muroc who were then evaluating the Northrop YB-49
Northrop YB-49
The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered heavy bomber aircraft developed by Northrop shortly after World War II. Intended for service with the U.S. Air Force, the YB-49 featured a flying wing design...
, the all-jet version of the exotic flying wing
Flying wing
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....
bomber. After his first few flights, he was not favorably impressed, confiding to his diary that it was "the darndest airplane I've ever tried to do anything with. Quite uncontrollable at times." Then, on June 5, 1948, he was flying as co-pilot with Maj. Daniel Forbes
Daniel Forbes
Daniel Hugh Forbes, Jr. was an American aviator.-Biography:Born in Carbondale, Kansas, Osage County, the only child of Daniel Sr., and Hattie Forbes of Topeka, Kansas...
when the airplane departed from controlled flight and broke apart in the sky northwest of the base. All five crew members were killed.
One of Col. Boyd's first orders of business, when he assumed command of Muroc in late 1949, was to rename the base in honor of someone who had given his life to the cause of experimental flight research. By tradition, Air Force bases were named after distinguished individuals who were native sons of the state in which a base was located. Boyd could think of no one more deserving than the bright young Californian whose promising career had ended in the skies over the western Mojave.
On December 8, 1949, Muroc Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
was officially redesignated Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
and, during ceremonies on January 27, 1950, a plaque was unveiled that commemorates his achievements. That plaque is now located in a place of honor in front of the headquarters of the Air Force Flight Test Center
Air Force Flight Test Center
The Air Force Flight Test Center conducts research, development, test, and evaluation of aerospace systems from concept to deployment. It has test flown every aircraft in the U.S. Air Force's inventory since World War II...
. The tribute at its base reads: "A pioneer of the Flying Wing in the western skies, with courage and daring unrecognized by himself." In 1995, Edwards was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor
Aerospace Walk of Honor
The Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, California, USA, honors test pilots who have contributed to aviation and space research and development....
.
In 2008, the family of Captain Edwards donated his diaries to the Air Force Flight Test Center museum. The diaries describe Edwards experiences during World War II, from when he joined the Army Air Corps, up to a few days before he died.