Make Your Career Soar
Fifty-five years ago this month, the USAF/Douglas X-3 Stiletto research aircraft exhibited a then little known dynamic instability mode during a flight test with NACA test pilot Joseph A. Walker at the controls. The X-3 was designed to fly at speeds up to Mach 2. The aircraft was approximately 67 feet in length and… Read More
Forty-one years ago this month, NASA successfully conducted the first manned Apollo Earth-orbital mission with the flight of Apollo 7. This mission was a critically-important milestone along the path to the first manned lunar landing in July 1969. The launch of Apollo 7 took place from Launch Complex 34 at Cape… Read More
Sixty-two years ago this month, the legendary USAF/Bell XS-1 experimental aircraft exceeded the speed of sound when it reached a maximum speed of 700 mph (Mach 1.06) at 45,000 feet. Bell Aircraft Corporation of Buffalo, New York built three copies of the XS-1 under contract to the United States Army Air… Read More
Forty-two years ago this month, USAF Major William J. “Pete” Knight piloted the fabled USAF/North American X-15A-2 hypersonic research aircraft to a record speed of 4,520 mph – about a mile and a quarter per second. North American’s original X-15 production run consisted of three (3) aircraft. The X-15A-2 was a rebuild of… Read More
Fifty-three years ago this month, the Bell X-2 rocket-powered research aircraft reached a record speed of 2,094 mph with USAF Captain Milburn G. “Mel” Apt at the controls. This corresponded to a Mach number of 3.2 at 65,000 feet. Mel Apt’s historic achievement came about because of the Air Force’s… Read More
Fifty-two years ago this month, the United States successfully tested a USAF/Douglas Thor missile for the first time. Thor Vehicle 105, launched from Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral, flew 1,100 miles down the Eastern Test Range (ETR) on Saturday, 21 September 1957. Named after the Norse god of thunder, the Thor… Read More
Thirty-five years ago this month, the legendary USAF/Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird triple-sonic aircraft established an official world speed record as it traversed the 5,446.87 statute miles between London and Los Angeles in 3 hours 47 minutes and 39 seconds. Average speed was 1,435.59 mph. The all-USAF crew of Captain Harold B. Adams (Pilot)… Read More
Fifty-three years ago today, the USAF/Bell X-2 research aircraft flew to an altitude of 126,200 feet. This accomplishment took place on the penultimate mission of the type’s 20-flight aeronautical research program. The date was Friday, 07 September 1956. The X-2 was the successor to Bell’s X-1A rocket-powered aircraft which had recorded… Read More
We take pause this week from our regular aerospace retrospective and consider a topic of a different nature. Such a change-of-pace seems quite natural as summer wanes and legions of new and returning education seekers troop through the portals of our country’s universities. However, rather than focus on the matriculating… Read More
Forty-six years ago this month, NASA chief research pilot Joseph A. Walker flew X-15 Ship No. 3 (S/N 56-6672) to an altitude of 354,200 feet. This flight would mark the highest altitude ever achieved by the famed hypersonic research vehicle. The date was Thursday, 22 August 1963. Carried aloft by NASA’s NB-52A (S/N… Read More
