NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center has unearthed original footage of experimental aircraft from as far back as the 1940s. It shows really cool views of aeroplanes, like the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket and the X-15 space plane.
At the time, the recently rechristened Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center was a facility controlled by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA. It was first known as the Muroc Flight Test Unit. Later, in 1949, people called High-Speed Flight Research Station and, in 1954, the High-Speed Flight Station. It was finally renamed the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range aka Dryden Flight Research Center aka Dryden, in honour of Hugh L. Dryden, space engineer and deputy director at NASA when he died in 1965.
Here’s a view of some of the aeroplanes of the fleet stationed there through the years:
