Air Force Maj. Gen. Curtis M. Bedke took over the Air Force Research Laboratory from Maj. Gen. Ted F. Bowlds Thursday in a change of command ceremony in the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

It's an important post, not only to the Air Force but to the Dayton region, because the $2 billion research operation is the biggest driver of science and technology in Ohio. AFRL has its headquarters and five of its nine technology directorates on Wright-Pat. The Air Force is just beginning a consolidation of research and training work under AFRL that's eventually to bring 473 military, 315 civilian and a corresponding number of contractor jobs to the Dayton area, according to an AFRL news release. As a part of it, the base will soon see a $320 million construction project for a complex to house AFRL's consolidated Sensors Directorate and the new 711 Human Performance Wing.


Bedke comes from Edwards Air Force Base in California, where he was commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center.

He predicted a smooth transition from Bowlds, who is moving to Boston to put on a third star and command the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base.

“You won’t see me executing any immediate break turns or snap rolls just to prove that I’m the guy," he said, using pilot jargon. Bedke is a former experimental test pilot and B-52 bomb wing commander.

While Bedke's career is steeped in operations, test and evaluation, he declared he's a science geek. “I grew up on (Isaac) Asimov, (Ray) Bradbury, (Robert A.) Heinlein, (and) (Harlan) Ellison," he said. He also holds a master's in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Stanford University.

Under his command, Bedke said AFRL must balance short-term needs with its long-term mission to define the future of airpower. “We have to balance between making sure we give the warfighter what they can use now, but also making sure that we don’t eat our seed corn, that we create the future. I think that’s probably our biggest challenge."

Bedke will need all his test-pilot skills to keep AFRL flying straight and level at a time when a war and the need to replace aging aircraft compete for funding.

Tags: AFRL, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Air Force Museum

Chuck Yeager is famous for booming the California desert 60 years ago on the first supersonic flight of the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane. What many people don't know is that the supersonic flight program was directed from Wright Field — now Area B of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — near Dayton, Ohio.

The age of supersonic flight came at the same time the Army Air Forces became a separate military service. The XS-1 program began as an Army program with the civilian National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as a partner. It came to fruition under the Air Force. It was directed by the Flight Test Division at Wright Field. Yeager, who had come to Dayton as a maintenance test pilot, graduated from flight test school just in time to be the lead pilot for the XS-1 program. He was sent to Edwards — then Muroc Army Air Field — and soon punched through the so-called sonic wall.

There are claims that Yeager was not the first to go supersonic, but only the first to do so in level flight. Claims have been made that German pilot Hans Guido Mutke and George Schwartz "Wheaties" Welch both broke the sound barrier in dives prior to Yeager's flight. Neither claim is officially recognized.

Yeager is scheduled to visit Wright-Patterson on Oct. 26 for the "Flying Sergeants" reunion of the Army Air Corps Enlisted Pilots Association. Yeager started his flying career in World War II as a sergeant through a program that allowed non-commissioned officers to take flight training.

Tags: Chuck Yeager, X-1, supersonic flight, Wright Field