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The payoff to nearly a decade of groundwork and work on the ground was realized 70 years ago with the push of a switch.

On May 3, 1954, the first turbojet engine test was initiated in the T-1 Test Cell of the new Engine Test Facility at Arnold Air Force Base.

Not only did this event mark the engine test in ETF, but it also represented the first simulated flight test of an engine at what was then known as Arnold Engineering Development Center.

This test was conducted on a J47 turbo jet engine. A simulated altitude of 30,000 feet at a speed of approximately 500 miles per hour was achieved during the initial run.

“Engineers and technicians operated the jet by remote control from a nearby control room where meters and gauges recorded the performance of the jet,” a news release issued on the date of the test reads. “The test runs with the J-47 are to shakedown and calibrate the test cell and the facility. Later tests will be concerned with development and operational testing of turbojet and ram-jet propulsion units for the aircraft industry and the armed services.”

The J47 engine was later used to power the B-47 Stratojet bomber.

In February 1952, the J47 was selected as the engine that would be used to calibrate ETF.

Shakedown work in ETF began in the summer of 1953 and was expected to take a little than three-quarters of a year to complete. On Aug. 27, 1953, the first engine was fired at AEDC during an outdoor, open-air instrumentation test near ETF. For this checkout, the engine, also a J47, was test fired using a specially designed and constructed thrust stand.

“Instrumentation testing of the J-47 engine will obtain engine performance data before calibration and shakedown tests begin in the Engine Test Facility this fall,” a news release issued on Aug. 31, 1953, reads. “The J-47 tests will probably require two months’ time in order to complete all the necessary engineering data.”