Make Your Career Soar
Fifty-five years ago this month, the USAF/North American X-10 experimental research vehicle hit a maximum speed of Mach 2.05 during its 19th test flight. The mark established a new speed record for turbojet-powered aircraft. The precedent set by the Nazi V-1 and V-2 Vergeltungswaffen (Vengeance Weapons) in World War II motivated the… Read More
Fifty-six years ago this week, North American test pilot George F. Smith became the first man to survive ejection from an aircraft in supersonic flight. Smith ejected from his F-100A Super Sabre at 777 MPH (Mach 1.05) as the crippled aircraft passed through 6,500 feet in a near-vertical dive.… Read More
Fifty-years ago this week, the NASA SCOUT small launch vehicle successfully orbited the Explorer IX satellite. This achievement marked the first time that an all-solid propellant launch vehicle orbited an artificial satellite. The concept for the Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test (SCOUT) launch vehicle dates back to the late 1950’s. … Read More
Thirty-seven years ago this month, the Mariner 10 interplanetary space probe successfully conducted a flyby encounter with the planet Venus. The Venusian flyby served as a necessary prelude to a subsequent first-ever flyby of the planet Mercury. The Mariner Program concentrated on the scientific exploration of the inner planets of… Read More
Fifty-years ago today, NASA successfully conducted a critical flight test of the agency’s Mercury-Redstone vehicle which helped clear the way for the United States’ first manned suborbital spaceflight. Riding the Mercury spacecraft into space and back was a 44-month old chimpanzee by the name of HAM. Project Mercury was America’s first… Read More
Seven years ago this week, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum on the surface of the planet Mars. Incredibly, the robotic rover continues to gather geological, atmospheric and astronomical data well beyond its design mission duration of ninety (90) Martian days. Mars is the 4th planet out from the Sun. … Read More
Fifty-one years ago this month, a developmental version of the USN/Lockheed Polaris A1 Fleet Ballistic Missile was test-flown from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The successful test marked a key milestone in the flight-proving of the Polaris missile’s Inertial Navigation System (INS). The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union spawned the development of a… Read More
Forty-seven years ago today, a USAF/Boeing B-52H Stratofortress landed safely following structual failure of its vertical tail during an encounter with unusually severe clear air turbulence. The harrowing incident occurred as the aircraft was undergoing structural flight testing in the skies over East Spanish Peak, Colorado. Turbulence is the unsteady, erratic motion of an atmospheric air… Read More
Sixty-two years ago this week, the USAF/Bell XS-1 became the first aircraft of any kind to achieve supersonic flight from a ground take-off. The daring feat took place at Muroc Air Force Base with USAF Captain Charles E. Yeager at the controls of the XS-1. Rocket-powered X-aircraft such as the XS-1, X-1A, X-2 and… Read More
Thirty-eight years ago this month, NASA successfully conducted the sixth lunar landing mission of the Apollo Program. Known as Apollo 17, the flight marked the last time that men from the planet Earth explored the surface of the Moon. Apollo 17 was launched from LC-39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday, 07… Read More
