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Front view of NASA Armstrong's mission support building with a composite of several images of the eclipsed moons overhead.
The X-59 being assembled at the Lockheed Martin facility.
ER-2 high-altitude Earth science aircraft in flight over snowy mountains.

Armstrong Flight Research Center

NASA’s primary center for high-risk, atmospheric flight research and test projects, with access to 301,000 acres of remote land, year-round flying weather, and the Bell X-1 Supersonic Corridor.

Learn More About Armstrong about Armstrong Flight Research Center

Location

Edwards, California

Founded

1946

People

1,100+

Director

Bradley C. Flick

Special Report: X-59 Makes its Public Debut

Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound.

Read the Feature about Special Report: X-59 Makes its Public Debut
Members of an audience lift their phones to snap a photo of the recently revealed X-59 aircraft. The plane's long, sharp nose appears to jut out towards the audience.

Meet Our People

NASA Armstrong's in-house knowledge – research and engineering; aircraft modification, maintenance, and operations; project and institutional management, etc. – drives the airworthiness and flight safety decisions to execute NASA’s mission.

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Large group of NASA Armstrong employees standing in front of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center's main building.

armstrong Leadership

Bradley C. Flick

Center Director

Laurie A. Gindle

Deputy Center Director

Sean E. McMorrow

Associate Director for Mission Support

Eddie Zavala

Director for Programs and Projects

Troy A. Asher

Director for Flight Operations

Stephen C. Jensen

Director for Research and Engineering

Portrait of Bruce A. Lipe

Director for Mission Operations (Acting)

Portrait of Peggy Hayes

Director for Safety and Mission Assurance (Acting)

Frank M. Ramos

Chief Financial Officer

Portrait of Armstrong chief engineer Cynthia Bixby

Chief Engineer

Jonathan Brett Swanson

Center Chief Counsel

Joy Murphy

Director for California Human Resources

Keri Eliason

Equal Employment Opportunity Officer

Eileen V. Detka

Chief of Staff

Research Focus Areas

Armstrong plays a pivotal role across all aspects of the agency’s missions.

Animation of air vehicles taking off and landing on a vertiport.

Aeronautics Projects

Conducting high-risk, atmospheric flight research and test projects.

Atmospheric probes installed along the fuselage of NASA's DC-8.

Science Projects

Operating highly specialized aircraft to observe and study the Earth.

Two people wearing flight suits float in an aircraft while in the middle of a parabola while working on a piece of equipment

Space Projects

Enabling and validating space exploration concepts.

Front view of the F/A-18 research aircraft on the ground.

Aircraft Flown at Armstrong

Maintaining a fleet of research and testbed platforms.

Capabilities & Facilities

Armstrong has the facilities and requisite expertise to conceive, design, analyze, fabricate, integrate, maintain, and conduct disciplinary research, flight research and flight test on modified or unique research vehicles and systems. Our strength is in integration of complex developmental systems.

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A top view shows the wing loading test configuration of an F/A-18E from the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, Maryland. Staff from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, assisted in preparing this F/A-18E aircraft for its new role as the Navy’s next loads test aircraft.

History

Armstrong's history dates back to 1946

NASA Armstrong is chartered to research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics, space, and related technologies, and conduct atmospheric Earth and space science flight operations. The center is named in honor of Neil A. Armstrong, a former research test pilot at the center and the first man to step on the moon during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

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An old picture of Armstrong Flight Research Center
Aeril view of the NACA High Speed Flight Station. Note the taxiway to Edwards main base has not yet been completed. 8/24/54 NASA DFRC E54-1361
NASA

Media Resources

Contacts, program information, and multimedia guidelines for media working on stories.

Start Your Research Here about Media Resources
Inside a NASA Armstrong hangar, a group of six NASA airborne science representatives sit in front a large group of media. Armstrong's C-20A science aircraft is seen in the background.

Resources to Learn More about Armstrong

Informing the public and media about NASA’s missions and promoting Armstrong’s mission to advance technology and science through flight.

An aircraft is towed out of a hangar.

X-Press Newsletter

A monthly publication, available in pdf format, reports on the center's research.

Rocket launches into the sky

Fact Sheets

Downloadable PDFs about the aircraft, flight test and research projects, facilities, people, and history of NASA Armstrong.

Speaker stands at podium in front of several people in the audience. A screen, showing a presentation slide, is on the wall behind the speaker.

Request a NASA Speaker

Each year, NASA speakers provide hundreds of presentations to thousands of people.

Test setup for strain gage calibration loading conducted on the F-15 ACTIVE 16 Jun 1995 in the Flight Loads Laboratory.

Virtual Tour

Virtually explore the capabilities and facilities that make Armstrong NASA's primary center for high-risk, atmospheric flight research and test projects.