Aeronautical Systems Center

The Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) was a U.S. Air Force product center that designed, developed and delivered aviation weapon systems and capabilities. It developed systems for the U.S. Air Force, other U.S. Department of Defense customers, allied, and coalition/partner/client forces. The ASC and its predecessors were located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for decades. ASC was established in 1961, and over its lifetime it managed 420 Air Force, joint and international aircraft acquisition programs and related projects; executed an annual budget that reached $19 billion and employed a workforce of more than 11,000 people located at Wright-Patterson AFB and 38 other locations worldwide.

ASC's portfolio included capabilities in fighter/attack, long-range strike, reconnaissance, mobility, agile combat support, special operations forces, training, unmanned aircraft systems, human systems integration and installation support. ASC was deactivated during a 20 July 2012 ceremony held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The Materiel Division was re-designated the Air Corps Materiel Command in 1942 as the role of the Army Air Force expanded. By 1943, well over 800 major, and thousands of minor research and development projects were in progress at Wright Field. Because many materials were scarce or unavailable during the war, scientists in the Materials Laboratory were involved in developing and testing a number of substitutes, including synthetic rubber for tires, nylon for parachutes, and plastic for canopies. The Armament Laboratory developed armored, self-sealing fuel tanks, increased bomb load capacity, gun turrets, and defensive armament. The command continued to work on future projects as well as wartime immediate needs. In 1944, Major Ezra Kotcher undertook pioneering work that led to the first supersonic airplane, the Bell X-1.

From September 1942, with the need to preserve secrecy with new aircraft such as the Bell P-59 Airacomet, the first trial U.S. jet aircraft, experimental flight testing of airframes began to take place at Rogers Dry Lake, near Muroc Army Air Field, California.

The new independent Air Force created the Air Research and Development Command and placed the principal elements of engineering, the laboratories, and flight testing under the Air Development Force (Provisional) (2 April 1951), soon renamed the Wright Air Development Center (WADC) (7 June 1951). It had divisions including Weapons Systems, Weapons Components, Research, Aeronautics, All-Weather Flying, Flight Test, and Materiel, and 12 laboratories. Engineers at Wright Field evaluated captured foreign aircraft during and after World War II. Aircraft brought to Wright Field included allied aircraft such as the Russian Yakovlev Yak-9 and the British Supermarine Spitfire and de Havilland Mosquito, and enemy aircraft including the German Junkers Ju 88, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Messerschmitt Me 262, and the Japanese A6M Zero. Also under WADC's aegis was the 6502 Parachute Development Test Group at Naval Auxiliary Air Station El Centro, California.

Postwar flight testing at Wright-Patterson was confined to component and instrument testing and other specialized kinds of flight test. The most important addition to postwar flight testing at Wright Field was all-weather testing. It represented the first major attempt to solve the many problems encountered in flying under all weather conditions, both day and night.

Wright Aeronautical Development Center developed two "workhorse" aircraft during the 1950s, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and Lockheed C-130 Hercules. WADC also developed the experimental X-planes, in an effort to advance aviation technology, including the Ryan X-13 Vertijet, the third U.S. VTOL testbed. WADC also contributed to the Department of Defense space program through the X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane project and Zero-G training. The XQ-6 and XQ-9 target drones were conceived by the WADC but never reached the hardware phase.

WADC was inactivated and replaced by the Wright Air Development Division which was constituted and activated on 15 December 1959. Then in 1961 the Air Force merged the Air Research and Development Command with the procurement functions of Air Materiel Command to form Air Force Systems Command. The WADD was discontinued on 1 April 1961, and its lineage ended. It was effectively replaced by the Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD).