Edwards Getting Ohio Flight Unit

While most U.S. military installations are facing cutbacks in this post-Cold War world, Edwards Air Force Base finds itself in the unusual position of dealing with growth.

“This is a great position to be in,” said Maj. Gen. Roy D. Bridges Jr., Edwards AFB commander.

The sprawling Air Force flight test center is in the midst of about $42.4-million worth of construction projects to accommodate the relocation of an Ohio test wing. The move to Edwards of the 4950th Test Wing from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with 950 military and civilian personnel and 26 aircraft, represents the single largest addition to the base in decades, according to the base historian.

The Ohio wing, tagged for relocation as part of the 1991 base closures and realignments, will merge with Edwards’ 412th Test Wing.

Although the 4950th is the only known addition at Edwards, Bridges said he expects Edwards will continue to be a beneficiary in the ongoing military downsizing.

“We’re simply one of the best places in the country for flight test,” said Bridges, a former astronaut and test pilot.

Brig. Gen. select Richard Engel, commander of the 412th Test Wing, agreed with Bridges’ assessment. Engel said Edwards offers a combination of conditions unmatched in the realm of aircraft test flight. Edwards offers clear weather, a vast expanse of airspace--including low-level and high-speed corridors--and miles of dry lake beds for emergency landings, said Engel, who takes over as Edwards commander in mid-June.

Bridges said Edwards had another key advantage in getting the wing besides those related to flight testing. At the time the Ohio wing’s move was being considered, Edwards was preparing to build a 90,000-square-foot office building to house its 412th Test Wing staff.

“Without this building on the books, we wouldn’t be able to merge the two wings,” Bridges said Friday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $11.9-million three-story office.

But not everyone was thrilled by the prospect of the Ohio wing’s relocation.

Ohio lawmakers, including Sen. John Glenn, himself a former astronaut, as recently as four months ago sent a letter to Defense Secretary Les Aspin asking that the test wing’s move be reconsidered. Glenn and other members of the Ohio Congressional delegation had earlier asked then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to reverse the consolidation.

The Ohio lawmakers argued that the move of the 4950th did not offer the financial savings the Air Force was touting, a contention the Department of Defense disputes.

Planes and personnel from the Ohio wing began arriving at Edwards in April. The entire wing is slated to be operational there in the spring of 1994, said Lt. Col. Wayne Lutz, Edwards-based director of the task force overseeing the wing’s move.

About 200 of the test wing personnel, most of them military, have already relocated to Edwards, Lutz said. A few of the 4950th’s aircraft are here, and by mid-June the count will reach 10, including six T-39 testbed aircraft and four C-141A cargo planes.

The second wave of 4950th Test Wing personnel and planes are due at Edwards in the fall, Lutz said. The aircraft that will come during that next and final phase are seven EC-135 and EC-18B advanced radar instrumentation aircraft, two cruise missile control aircraft and seven C-135 and C-18B testbed aircraft.