Air Engineering Development Center

Arnold Engineering Development Complex
An F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter model in the Arnold Engineering Development Center's 16-foot transonic wind tunnel
Active	1950–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Test facility
Part of	Air Force Test Center Air Force Materiel Command
Garrison/HQ	Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee
Nickname(s)	AEDC
Patron	Gen Henry "Hap" Arnold
Decorations	Air Force Organizational Excellence Award
Commanders
Commander	Col Scott A. Cain
Executive Director	Dr. Mark A. Mehalic
Insignia
Arnold Engineering Development Complex emblem

Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC), Arnold Engineering Development Center before July 2012, located at Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee is a ground-based flight test facility operated by the Air Force Test Center.

AEDC's mission is to conduct developmental test and evaluation for the Nation through modeling, simulation, ground and flight test. Testing will evaluate aircraft, missile and space systems and subsystems at the flight conditions they will experience during a mission; conduct a research and technology program to develop advanced testing techniques and instrumentation and to support the design of new test facilities and maintain and modernize the center’s existing test facilities.

Several areas of the facility are contaminated by substances including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and volatile organic compounds and spills of jet and rocket fuel, chlorofluorocarbon solvents, nitric acid and other materials. PCBs from the site have been detected in local creeks, in the water, sediment and in fish.

The site was proposed for addition to the Superfund National Priorities List in August 1994 though, as of May 2010, the site has not been added to the NPL. The Environmental Protection Agency believes that human exposure to contaminants and contaminated groundwater migration are under control.

The Air Engineering Development Center was authorized by an act of the 81st Congress, Public Law 415, approved Oct. 27, 1949. (Appendix 2)

On March 7, 1950, the Air Engineering Development Center was redesignated the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) effective Feb. 10, 1950, per General Order #23, signed by then-Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) was later redesignated Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) on 6 July 2012

The complex is a part of a master unitary wind tunnel plan that is designated to provide the testing “tools” required to assure the United States continued air and space supremacy.