Make Your Career Soar
Forty-five years ago this month, the USAF/North American XB-70A Valkyrie reached three times the speed of sound for the first time. The historic aviation achievement took place on the 18th anniversary of the breaking of the sound barrier by the USAF/Bell XS-1. When it comes to legendary aircraft, aviation enthusiasts speak in… Read More
Sixty-three years ago this month, the swept-wing XP-86, the initial version of the famed USAF/North America F-86 Sabre, began flight testing at what is now Edwards Air Force Base. The popular Mig Alley legend would be produced in numerous variants and ultimately rack-up a total production run of nearly 10,000 aircraft worldwide. In the waning… Read More
Twenty-two years ago this week, the Space Shuttle Discovery and its five man crew landed on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base to successfully complete the Return-to-Flight (RTF) mission of STS-26. The flight signaled a resumption of the Space Shuttle Program after a 32-month hiatus in manned spaceflight resulting from the Challenger disaster. Well chronicled… Read More
Forty-four years ago this month, Gemini 11 flew a spectacular 3-day mission that helped pave the way to the first manned lunar landing. The all-Navy crew included astronauts Charles P. Conrad, Jr. and Richard F. Gordon, Jr. America’s manned space effort of the 1960’s and early 1970’s consisted of the Mercury, Gemini and… Read More
Fifty-four years ago this month, the USAF/North American F-107A aircraft flew for the first time. The Mach 2-capable fighter-bomber went supersonic on the type’s maiden flight. The F-107A was designed, developed and tested by North American Aviation (NAA) in the mid-1950’s. With it, the contractor hoped to satisfy Tactical Air Command’s (TAC) need… Read More
Twenty-five years ago today, the USAF/LTV ASM-135 anti-satellite missile successfully intercepted a target satellite orbiting 300 nautical miles above the Earth. The test was the first and only time that an aircraft-launched missile successfully engaged and destroyed an orbiting spacecraft. The United States began testing anti-satellite missiles in the late 1950’s. … Read More
Thirty-three years ago this week, the Voyager 1 space probe was launched on a first-ever mission to fly past the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Incredibly, both Voyager 1 and its companion Voyager 2 spacecraft continue to function quite well and transmit valuable data back to Earth as they voyage eternally in deep space. The Voyager Program was a 1970’s… Read More
Forty-five years ago this month, NASA astronauts Leroy Gordon Cooper and Charles M. “Pete” Conrad set a new spaceflight endurance record during the flight of Gemini 5. It was the third of ten (10) missions in the historic Gemini spaceflight series. The motto for the mission was “Eight Days or Bust”. The… Read More
Thirty-five years ago this month, the USAF/NASA/Martin X-24B became the first lifting body to make an unpowered precision landing on a concrete runway. The feat was pivotal to convincing NASA officials that landing the Space Shuttle Orbiter in an unpowered state was operationally feasible. Early Space Shuttle Orbiter operational concepts featured the use of a pair… Read More
Fifty-seven years ago this week, the USN/Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket soared to an unofficial world record altitude of 83,235 feet. The Skyrocket’s record altitude mission was piloted by USMC test pilot and World War II triple-ace Lieutenant Colonel Marion E. Carl. The D-558-II was a United States Navy (USN) X-aircraft and first flew in February of 1948. … Read More
