Glen Edwards ( pilot ) Glen Edwards ( March 5 , 1918 – June 5 , 1948 ) was a test pilot for the U . S . Air Force , and is the namesake of Edwards Air Force Base . Edwards was born in Medicine Hat , Alberta , Canada , where he lived until 1931 . At age 13 , his parents moved the family to California , settling in Lincoln , northeast of Sacramento . He maintained dual U . S . - Canadian citizenship throughout his life . After graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from the University of California , Berkeley , Edwards enlisted in the U . S . Army Air Forces on July 15 , 1941 , five months before Pearl Harbor . Upon completion of flight training , he was commissioned as a second lieutenant at Luke Field , Arizona , in February 1942 . Assigned to the 86th Light Bombardment Squadron of the 47th Bombardment Group , he departed for the North African theater of operations ( Tunisia ) as a flight commander in October 1942 . There he led his flight of A - 20 s on extremely hazardous , low - level missions against German tanks , convoys , troop concentrations , bridges , airfields and a variety of other tactical targets . When the Germans broke through the Kasserine Pass in February 1943 , his undermanned and undersupplied squadron flew eleven missions in a single day , repeatedly attacking advancing armored columns and blunting their thrust . On one of these missions , Edwards and his crew set a record by completing a combat mission – from takeoff to landing – in just 19 minutes . His squadron received a Distinguished Unit Citation for this action . During his tours in the North African campaign and the invasion of Sicily , Edwards completed 50 combat missions and was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and six Air Medal s . Returning to the United States in December 1943 , he was assigned to the Pilot Standardization Board at Florence Army Air Field , S . C . , and then , in late 1944 , to the Flight Test Division at Wright Field , Ohio . He graduated from the Flight Performance School ( initial designation of the USAF Test Pilot School ) there in May 1945 and was assigned to the Bomber Test Operations Section . Though assigned to Wright Field , he spent much of his time at Muroc Army Air Field , on California ' s high desert , testing a wide variety of experimental prototypes such as Douglas ' highly unconventional pusher - prop light bomber , the XB - 42 Mixmaster . Indeed , in December 1945 , he and Lt . Col . Henry E . Warden set a new transcontinental speed record when they flew this airplane from Long Beach , California , to Bolling Air Force Base , in Washington , D . C . , in just 5 hours , 17 minutes . In 1946 , he was the principal project pilot for the jet - powered Convair XB - 46 prototype bomber . It was also during this period that he acquired his first experience with a flying wing , as he familiarized himself with the flying qualities of the Northrop N - 9M , a single - seat , one - third scale mock - up of the giant XB - 35 prototype bomber . Living modestly on a captain ' s salary at the time , he also somehow managed to help put two of his nephews through college . His superb skills as a pilot , engineer and officer were held in such high esteem that his immediate superior , Major Robert M . Cardenas , recommended him as project pilot for an unprecedented program – the first attempt to exceed the speed of sound in the Bell X - 1 . That assignment , however , went to Capt . Chuck Yeager . Edwards was , instead , selected to be among the first to be sent to Princeton University for graduate study in the aeronautical science s . The recent war had spawned truly revolutionary advances in aviation technology and it had become apparent to men such as Col . Albert Boyd , the chief of the Flight Test Division , that a new breed of military test pilot – one who combined the talents of a highly skilled pilot with the technical expertise of an engineer – would be required to effectively evaluate increasingly complex aircraft and onboard systems . Thus , when Glen Edwards graduated from Princeton with a masters of science in aeronautical engineering in 1947 , he represented one of the first of this new breed . In May 1948 , he was selected to join the team of test pilots and engineers at Muroc who were then evaluating the Northrop YB - 49 , the all - jet version of the exotic flying wing bomber . After his first few flights , he was not favorably impressed , confiding to his diary that it was " the darndest airplane I ' ve ever tried to do anything with . Quite uncontrollable at times . " Then , on June 5 , 1948 , he was flying as co - pilot with Maj . Daniel Forbes when the airplane departed from controlled flight and broke apart in the sky northwest of the base . All five crew members were killed . One of Col . Boyd ' s first orders of business , when he assumed command of Muroc in late 1949 , was to rename the base in honor of someone who had given his life to the cause of experimental flight research . By tradition , Air Force bases were named after distinguished individuals who were native sons of the state in which a base was located . Boyd could think of no one more deserving than the bright young Californian whose promising career had ended in the skies over the western Mojave . On December 8 , 1949 , Muroc Air Force Base was officially redesignated Edwards Air Force Base and , during ceremonies on January 27 , 1950 , a plaque was unveiled that commemorates his achievements . That plaque is now located in a place of honor in front of the headquarters of the Air Force Flight Test Center . The tribute at its base reads : " A pioneer of the Flying Wing in the western skies , with courage and daring unrecognized by himself . " In 1995 , Edwards was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor . In 2008 , the family of Captain Edwards donated his diaries to the Air Force Flight Test Center museum . The diaries describe Edwards experiences during World War II , from when he joined the Army Air Corps , up to a few days before he died . There is a middle school in Lincoln , California named after Edwards . References . Ford , Daniel : " Glen Edwards : The Diary of a Bomber Pilot " ( Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press , 1998 ) ISBN 1 - 56098 - 571 - 2