History of Eglin Air Force Base engine." On 31 October 1992, the first U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III to deploy to a base outside of California completed a 4.2-hour, flight to Eglin Air Force Base. The third production aircraft flew from Edwards AFB to the Florida base where it underwent pressurization and temperature control tests inside the climatic test facility. The tests were expected to last five to six months, after which it was to return to the flight test program at Edwards. On 25 March 1993, the 55th Special Operations Squadron, equipped with Sikorsky MH-60 Black Hawks, was reassigned from Eglin Main
Edwards Air Force Base exceed , accelerating to a speed of . His moment of glory was tragically brief, however. Just seconds after attaining top speed, the X-2 tumbled violently out of control and Apt was never able to recover. With the loss of the X-2, the search for many of the answers to the riddles of high-Mach flight had to be postponed until the arrival of the most ambitious of the rocket planes—the North American X-15. Meanwhile, the turbojet revolution had reached a high plateau at Edwards. By the time the base was officially designated the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center in