The supersonic gray jet fighter in the middle of this photo is the very first F-22 jet fighter – actually the first of two YF-22A prototypes. It is the centerpiece display inside the Air Force Flight Test Museum. The YF-22 flight program was conducted here at Edwards Air Force Base. Considered the air dominance fighter of the 21st Century, the production-variant F-22 owes its existence to the successful flight demonstration program of this YF-22A prototype and a second YF-22A that ensured selection of this aircraft over its YF-23 rival for production. The museum’s YF-22A showcased airworthiness, supersonic flight, and systems performance. This jet performed aerial refueling tests which proved the YF-22’s ability to take on fuel from a tanker aircraft. This had the added advantage during the brief flight program of the YF-22s to enable this prototype to remain aloft for longer periods of productive test time. The pair of YF-22s logged a total of 92 hours of flying time between 29 September 1990 and the conclusion of the program about three months later. First-flight pilot Dave Ferguson brought the museum’s YF-22A from nearby Palmdale, California, to Edwards during a rare thunderstorm. The wet-runway environment provided an additional test point successfully accomplished on that initial flight. A team of F-22 maintenance specialists from the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron and the 412th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron dismantled the YF-22 at its previous site at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and reassembled the rare prototype jet and readied it for display in the AFFT Museum at Edwards in 2010.

The First Flights Wall



Many of the historic aircraft that have made their first flights at Edwards AFB for more than six decades are depicted in 1/72 scale in this fascinating museum timeline.