Located on the northwest ''shore'' of Rogers Dry Lake, the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, was built around the original administrative-hangar building constructed in 1954. This photograph was taken from the taxiway looking into the hangar. Two F/A-18 Hornet chase aircraft can just be seen. F-18's are used at Dryden primarily as safety chase and support aircraft. Since 1954 many additional support and operational facilities have been built at the site including a number of unique test facilities such as the Thermal Structures Research Facility, Flow Visualization Facility, and the newest addition, the Integrated Test Facility. For almost a half century the Center has developed a unique and highly specialized capability for conducting flight research programs. The Dryden complex originated at Edwards in support of the X-1 supersonic flight program. As other high-speed aircraft entered research programs, the facility became permanent and grew from a staff of five engineers in 1947 to a population in 1995 of nearly 900 full-time government and contractor employees.