Rogers Dry Lake
Lake in CaliforniaWikipedia
5
MENTIONS
3
EPISODES
2
PODCASTS
Search complete. 5 mentions across 3 episodes found for "Rogers Dry Lake".
Sep 6, 2026
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Listen, I'll tell you.
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Ever hear of Muroc Dry Lake? Well, you go out San Fernando Road and you turn off at Fremont Pass on the 6th instead of going up over the ridge route.
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You go up through Mid-Canyon, see, and on through Palmdale and Lancaster.
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Then you take a road off to the right by the S.P. station.
28 MINS LATER
speaker_33SOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Major Westlake, you are ordered to return to your base.
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Sir, I'm at my base.
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I'm stationed at Muroc Dry Lake.
Ernest ChappellSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
This is Muroc Dry Lake, sir.
Tail DraggerHOST
Now here's where it gets interesting.
Tail DraggerHOST
In May of 1948, one of the YB-49s broke apart over Muroc Dry Lake during a test flight.
Tail DraggerHOST
Major Daniel Forbes and Captain Glenn Edwards were killed.
Tail DraggerHOST
Glenn Edwards had flown bombers over Germany and survived the entire war.
Tail DraggerHOST
Murook Army Airfield sat on a dry lake bed in the Antelope Valley, out in the high Mojave Northwest of Los Angeles.
Tail DraggerHOST
The lake bed, Rogers Dry Lake, was a natural runway so vast and flat you could land almost anything, almost anywhere, without much ceremony.
Tail DraggerHOST
The Army had started using it in the 1930s.
Tail DraggerHOST
During World War II, it became a major flight test installation, and it was growing.