Make Your Career Soar
Fifty-two years ago this month, a XSM-64 Navaho G-26 flight test vehicle flew 1,075 miles in 40 minutes at a sustained speed of Mach 2.8. It was the 8th flight test of the ill-fated Navaho Program. The post-World War II era saw the development of a myriad of missile weapons systems. Perhaps the most… Read More
Forty-two years ago this month, the Surveyor 7 spacecraft soft-landed in the lunar highlands near the Crater Tycho. It was the fifth and last Surveyor vehicle to successfully perform an autonomous landing on the Moon. In preparation for the first manned lunar landing, the United States conducted an extensive investigation… Read More
Forty-one years ago this month, three American astronauts became the first men to orbit the Earth’s Moon during the flight of Apollo 8. The flight also featured the first manned flight of the mighty Saturn V rocket booster as well as history’s first superorbital entry of a manned spacecraft. Following the Apollo… Read More
One-hundred and six years ago this month, the Wright Flyer became the first aircraft in history to achieve powered flight. The site of this historic event was Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright began their legendary aeronautical careers in 1899. In just four short years, the brothers would… Read More
Fifty-six years ago this month, USAF Major Charles E. Yeager set an unofficial world speed record of 1,650 mph (Mach 2.44) in the Bell X-1A flight research aircraft. In the process, Yeager nearly lost his life. The USAF/Bell X-1A was a second generation X-aircraft intended to explore flight beyond Mach 2. It… Read More
Forty-six years ago this month, USAF Major Robert W. Smith zoomed the rocket-powered Lockheed NF-104A to an unofficial record altitude of 120,800 feet. This mark still stands as the highest altitude ever achieved by a United States aircraft from a runway take-off. A zoom maneuver is one in which aircraft kinetic energy (speed) is traded for… Read More
Eighty years ago this month, a four-man crew became the first Antarctic explorers to fly over the Earth’s South Pole. The aircraft used to make the historic flight was a Ford Trimotor. While substantial exploration of the Artic and Antarctic by land and sea had occurred far earlier, exploration of these regions by air was in its infancy during… Read More
Five years ago today, the NASA X-43A scramjet-powered flight research vehicle reached a record speed of over 6,600 mph (Mach 9.68). In doing so, the X-43A broke its own record speed of Mach 6.83 (4,600 mph) and became the fastest airbreathing aircraft of all time. In 1996, NASA initiated a technology demonstration program known as HYPER-X. … Read More
Forty-three years ago this month, NASA’s pioneering spaceflight program, Project Gemini, was brought to a successful conclusion with the 4-day flight of Gemini XII. Remarkably, the mission was the tenth Gemini flight in 20 months. Boosted to Earth orbit by a two-stage Titan II launch vehicle, Gemini XII Command Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr. and Pilot… Read More
Fifty-six years ago this month, the USN/Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly at twice the speed of sound. This historic event took place on Friday, 20 November 1953 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The D-558-II was a United States Navy (USN) X-aircraft and first flew in February… Read More
