Palmdale, city (1990 pop. 68,842), Los Angeles co., S Calif., in the irrigated Antelope Valley; a growing residential suburb of Los Angeles near Little Rock Creek where it forms Lake Palmdale Reservoir, inc. 1962. Established from two communities that were settled in the 1870s and 80s, Palmdale took its current name in 1899. Formerly a farm community, it prospered with the completion of the Los Angeles aquaduct in 1914. From the early 1950s to the early 1990s the city's economic base depended on the manufacture of air-navigation systems, aerospace vehicles, and the development of advanced aircraft design systems at a complex of government-owned plants run by private industry, but the economy is now highly diversified. There is an airfield for jet aircraft testing, and Edwards Air Force Base is nearby.
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