Make Your Career Soar
Fifty-eight years ago this month, the lone remaining USAF/Martin XB-51 light attack bomber prototype crashed during take-off from El Paso International Airport in Texas. The cause of the mishap was attributed to premature rotation of the aircraft leading to an unrecoverable stall. A product of the post-WWII 1940’s, the Martin… Read More
Forty-five years ago this month, the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) flew in space for the first time during the Apollo 9 earth-orbital mission. This technological achievement was critical to the success of the first lunar landing mission which occurred a little over 4 months later. The Apollo Lunar Module (LM)… Read More
Fifty-five years ago this month, the U.S. Navy’s first production Martin P6M-2 SeaMaster flyingboat took-off from Chesapeake Bay on its maiden flight. Martin chief test pilot George A. Rodney was at the controls of the 4-man, swept-wing naval bomber as it took to the skies on Tuesday, 17 February 1959.… Read More
Fifty-two years ago today, Project Mercury Astronaut John Herschel Glenn, Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth. Glenn’s spacecraft name and mission call sign was Friendship 7. Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) lifted-off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 14 at 14:47:39 UTC on Tuesday, 20 February 1962. It was the… Read More
Sixty-nine years ago this month, the Consolidated Vultee XP-81 made its flight test debut at Muroc Army Air Field, California with Vultee test pilot Frank Davis in the cockpit. The XP-81 was a prototype long range escort fighter powered by a combination of single turbojet and single turboprop engines. The… Read More
Forty years ago this week, the USAF/General Dynamics YF-16 Lightweight Fighter (LWF) took to the air on its official first flight with General Dynamics test pilot Phil Oestricher at the controls. The YF-16 would go on to win the Air Combat Fighter competition following a head-to-head fly-off against Northrop’s YF-17… Read More
Fifty-six years ago this week, the United States successfully orbited the country’s first satellite. Known as Explorer I, the artificial moon went on to discover the system of radiation belts that surrounds the space environment of the Earth. The Explorer I satellite was designed and fabricated by the Jet Propulsion… Read More
Forty-six years ago this month, the Surveyor 7 spacecraft soft-landed in the lunar highlands near the Crater Tycho. It was the fifth and final Surveyor vehicle to successfully perform an autonomous landing on the surface of the Moon. In preparation for the first manned lunar landing, the United States conducted… Read More
Fifty-years ago this month, NASA successfully launched the first Saturn I Block II heavy-lift launch vehicle. Known as Saturn-Apollo No. 5 (SA-5), the mission featured the largest mass ever orbited up that time in the history of spaceflight. The Saturn I was a pathfinder rocket booster that ultimately lead to… Read More
Sixty-three years ago this month, the USN/Douglas XF4D-1 Skyray fighter flew for the first time at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Douglas test pilot Robert O. Rahn was at the controls of the single-engine, carrier-based, supersonic-capable aircraft. The Douglas XF4D-1 was the prototype version of the United States Navy’s… Read More
