The leader started a descending turn back toward the shore, with Jack on the inside of the turn. All of a sudden, Jack’s wing tip hit the water. The aircraft were flying at about 250 knots at the time. Jack’s aircraft cartwheeled a number of times before finally slamming into the water. Within an instant, Jack’s aircraft turned into a submarine. Jack managed to get out of the aircraft and then was amazed to find that he could stand up in the water. It was only chest deep. It’s hard to believe anyone could survive such an accident. Maybe Jack was allowed to survive so he could go back and beat the crap out of that stupid flight leader.
Following the war, Jack went back to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and graduated in 1950 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. Jack worked at the NACA Langley Research Center as an engineer for a brief period before transferring to Dryden to work as an engineer and subsequently as a research pilot. Jack flew a variety of research programs in the F-100, YF-102, F-102A, F-104, D-558-I, D-558-II, X-1B, and the X-1E. Jack accumulated more rocket flights than any U.S. pilot other than Crossfield. Jack had a total of forty-six rocket flights before flying the X-15. Jack was an excellent stick and rudder pilot, possibly the best of the X-15 pilots. He was one of the few pilots who did not break a nose gear during landing of the X-1. Jack was an expert at dead sticking an airplane to a landing.
Jack also was involved in some humorous incidents. He picked up a brand new F-102A aircraft from the manufacturer to ferry back to the NACA at Edwards. Jack landed without incident and then taxied back to the NACA ramp. The ground crew parked him and then signaled him to shut the engine down, which Jack did. He unstrapped and then tried to open the canopy. It would not budge. Jack strained and strained but with no luck. The canopy would not move.
By this time, he was getting hot. It was summer and the temperature on the ramp was well over 100°F and Jack was effectively sitting in a small greenhouse. The ground crew got some stands up next to the cockpit to try to open the canopy from the outside. No luck. They began to get frantic because it looked like Jack was going to collapse from heat exhaustion. Someone finally suggested that they pull the aircraft into the hangar, which they did. They continued to work on that canopy for another half hour in the hangar before someone else suggested that we try to get a Convair rep to help us. The ground crew finally got the canopy open an hour and a half after Jack had shut the engine down. He came out of that cockpit like a steamed clam.
A couple of years later Jack was flying the F-107 that we acquired from the flight test center. As mentioned earlier, the engine inlet on the F-107 was above and immediately behind the cockpit. The pilot definitely had to shut the engine down on that airplane before he opened the canopy or it would vacuum out the cockpit, including the pilot if he was not strapped in. As Jack taxied the F-107 back to the NACA, one of his wheel brakes caught fire. The base firefighters in the substation near the NACA saw the fire as Jack taxied by. They immediately pulled in behind him as he taxied up to the NACA ramp. The ground crew began waving frantically to Jack to stop and shut the engine down. He did as he was directed and then noticed the firetrucks pulling in beside him and unlimbering their fire hoses. He quickly realized that he must have a serious problem, and decided to open the canopy and get out.
The canopy started to open and then it stopped. It was a big, heavy canopy that was hydraulically powered. When it stopped, it stopped for good. It would not move. The fire was getting bigger and Jack was trapped. He finally squeezed under the edge of the canopy and fell out on the roof of one of the carryall vehicles that had pulled up next to the aircraft. This whole incident would have been a keystone comedy if it had not been so damn serious. Luckily no one got hurt and the aircraft was repairable.
Jack had a pretty good sense of humor. He originated several very good one-liners that have been quoted at Dryden for the last 25 years. One of my favorites was a comment Jack made during a weather flight. He was flying the weather flight and the weather was very marginal all along the planned X-15 track. Jack described the weather and cloud cover to NASA-1 at each of the emergency lakes and at the launch lake as he flew up range. The weather did not appear to be adequate for an X-15 flight, but NASA-1 could not get Jack to state that unequivocally. Finally in exasperation NASA-1 asked Jack for a bottom-line assessment. His response was, “Any improvement will be for the better.”
Jack was one of my best friends. We did a lot of hunting and fishing together, when we could get some rare time off. It was really tough getting any time off as a NASA pilot. We were somewhat shorthanded and whenever the X-15 flew, all the pilots were needed to support the flight operation, either as the pilot, the controller, or chase pilot. The weather was good most of the year, so the X-15 operation kept going year round. We did manage to get away occasionally on long holiday weekends. Several times Joe Walker, Forrest Petersen, Jack, and I hiked into high country over Whitney Portal to fish. That is a hell of a lot of effort for just a weekend of fishing, though.
Jack was a true southern gentleman. I miss him.
ROBERT A. RUSHWORTH
Bob was the backup X-15 pilot to Bob White. Bob was a C-46 and C-47 pilot during World War II, flying in the China, India, Burma theater of operations. Bob participated in the famous flights over the hump from India to China during this time. After the war, he became a member of the air force reserve and attended the University of Maine. He graduated in 1951 as a mechanical engineer and later received a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson AFB. Bob was recalled to active duty in 1951 during the Korean War and remained on active duty following the war.
Bob began his test-flying career at Wright Patterson AFB testing automatic flight control systems. He transferred to Edwards AFB in 1956 and attended the Experimental Test Pilot School. Following graduation, Bob was assigned as a test pilot to the fighter operations branch at Edwards and later as operations officer in the manned spacecraft operations branch while flying the X-15. Prior to flying the X-15, Bob flew test programs on the F-101, TF-102, F-104, F-105, and F-106 aircraft.
Bob also served as a mentor to the Dyna-Soar pilots in his role as operations officer in the manned spacecraft operations branch. He spent quite a bit of time in Seattle during the early development phase of Dyna-Soar. Bob also played a key role in NASA Dryden’s dealings with the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center. He worked hard to assure flight test center support for the X-15 program. The X-15 had a surprisingly low priority within DOD programs and it was primarily a result of Bob’s efforts that the X-15 was able to maintain reasonable schedules.
I vividly remember one incident that involved Bob. He had been flying a chase mission in an F-104 and on completion of the mission had returned for landing. When he lowered the landing gear he did not get a successful deployment. He recycled the gear in an attempt to get three green lights but no luck. He recycled the gear several more times, but on each cycle he got a different result. One of the three gear would stay up while the other two came down. He tried the emergency gear extension system and violent maneuvering to free the stuck landing gear but had no success. It finally became obvious that Bob was going to have to eject. You do not attempt to land F-104s with one gear retracted. This scenario is, in some respects, the worst ejection scenario since you have time to sit and think about it. I also had to eject from an F-104 but in my ejection, I really did not have time to think about it. I had to go. I personally preferred that scenario. In Bob’s case, he did have more time to prepare for the ejection, and pick the ideal location, but I personally would not have traded places with him.
When all the possible options had been exhausted and the gear still came down asymmetrically, Bob turned out over the bombing range and initiated the ejection. The ejection was completely successful and the aircraft impacted in the bombing range. Bob’s name is now permanently on the list of pilots in the parachute packing facility who have successfully parachuted from an aircraft in an emergency. That’s a hell of a way to
qualify for celebrity status.
I really like Bob. He is a down-to-earth type person and an extremely capable research pilot.
NEIL A. ARMSTRONG
Neil was a navy fighter pilot during the Korean War. He lost a wing tip from his F9F-2 fighter during one mission due to a collision with an anti-aircraft cable and had to eject. Following the war, Neil attended Purdue University, graduating in 1955 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. He went to work for the NACA in 1955 as a test pilot at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He transferred to the Dryden Flight Research Center that same year and began flying research programs on the F-100, F-104, X-1B, and X-5.
In 1959, Neil was assigned to the Dyna-Soar program as the lead NASA pilot-consultant. He served as a pilot-consultant on Dyna-Soar until his selection as a NASA astronaut in 1962. Neil did some outstanding work developing an abort maneuver for the Dyna-Soar spacecraft to save the aircraft in the case of a booster malfunction.
Neil was the copilot of the B-29 on a mission to launch Jack McKay in one of the D-558-II rocket aircraft. Just prior to launch, Jack called an abort because he was having trouble pressurizing his propellant tanks. Shortly after the abort call, the propeller on the number four engine of the B-29 began to overspeed. Stan Butchart, who was the pilot of the B-29, attempted to regain control of the prop, but quickly realized he was losing the battle. He informed Jack McKay that he was going to have to launch him even though Jack had called an abort and deactivated the systems in his aircraft.
Butch launched Jack and within seconds, the propellor oversped and came off the number four engine. The propellor cut through the bottom of the number three engine as it came off, cutting the main oil line of that engine. The propellor continued on and cut through the lower fuselage of the B-29 at the exact location where the D-558-II cockpit had been just seconds before. In cutting through the fuselage, the propellor also severed some flight control cables which resulted in a partial loss of control on both control columns. Butch lost his roll control and Neil lost his pitch control. Between the two of them, they managed to get the B-29 back to Edwards for a safe landing with both engines inoperative on the right wing.
In the meantime, Jack McKay was fighting to activate the D-558 aircraft so that he could jettison the propellants and try to glide to one of the lakebeds for a landing. Jack had been launched a long way from Edwards and really had to stretch his glide to make it to a lakebed. He finally made it to Edwards and made a great landing.
Neil lived in a small house on a couple of acres in Juniper Hills on the southern edge of the Antelope Valley. Neil had several cars, none of which were in good mechanical condition. Neil worked out a pretty good procedure to compensate for the questionable condition of his automobiles. His home was up in the hills above the Pearblossom Highway. He would simply start rolling down the hill in one of his cars on the way to his job at Edwards. If the car started running and sounded good, he would continue on across Pearblossom Highway and head for Edwards. If it did not start, or if it sounded bad, he would simply make a left turn at the highway and coast on down to an automotive repair shop. He would then walk back up and try another car. Later that day after work, he would stop at the shop to pick up the other car. He really had a car repair production line going. The mechanic at the repair shop knew him well. Neil tends to disclaim this story by saying that he would never walk 6 miles back up the hill to get another car. I do remember him saying on a number of occasions that God gave man a fixed number of heartbeats and that he was not going to use his up by overexerting himself.
Neil was a pretty good piano player. After a few beers at a flight party, he could usually be coaxed into playing some songs. Neil also had a rather dry sense of humor. During one flight party Neil combined these two talents to confound an air force officer who requested that Neil play a song. Neil looked at the officer and noted that he was wearing a missile commander’s badge. He then nonchalantly responded, “I don’t know any old missileer songs” and immediately struck up a chorus of “The Wild Blue Yonder.”
In my opinion, Neil was probably the most intelligent of all the X-15 pilots, in a technical sense. He was extremely well qualified to fly the X-15. I worked and flew with Neil for over six years. I knew Neil, but I did not know him.
JOSEPH H. ENGLE
Joe was a member of the USAF ROTC at the University of Kansas at Lawrence in the early 1950s. After graduation in 1955, he worked at Cessna Aircraft as a flight test engineer before beginning active duty in 1956. Joe flew F-100 Super Sabres with the 309th Tactical Fighter Squadron at George AFB for 4 years before being selected to attend the Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards. Joe served as a fighter test pilot at Edwards after graduation until his assignment to the X-15 program in 1963.
Joe and I were assigned to the X-15 program at the same time. We went through ground school together and participated in all of the other checkout activities during the summer and early fall of 1963. Joe and I worked together on the simulator for many, many hours before our first flights. We continued to work together during our subsequent flights alternating as pilot and ground controller. We worked hard trying to improve the accuracy of control of each flight. It was quite common to miss the intended altitude on a given flight by 5,000 to 10,000 feet and the speed by 100 or 200 knots. We managed to reduce those errors significantly by working many extra hours together on the simulator.
Joe was an excellent pilot. He really took the job as a test pilot seriously except occasionally when his exuberance overcame him. That happened on his first X-15 flight. After he had completed the familiarization maneuvers, he slow rolled the X-15. That maneuver really shocked the engineers in the control room. They did not immediately recognize it as a slow roll. They assumed the worst and thought Joe had a control problem. In a research program, the pilot simply did not add an extemporaneous maneuver to the flight plan. Joe was thoroughly chastised by Bob Rushworth after the flight.
Joe went on to become a straight arrow after that incident. In fact he became one of the best X-15 chase pilots in addition to being one of the better X-15 pilots. As a chase pilot for one X-15 flight, he saved Bob Rushworth from a potentially serious accident by a timely call just before touchdown.
Joe was also a very resourceful individual according to this fish story. Joe had planned to go fishing in the high Sierras with some other pilots but had to cancel due to a change in his X-15 flight date. He subsequently decided to surprise his fishing buddies with some fresh supplies. He bought some steaks, froze them, and then brought them in to work one morning. He was scheduled to fly a proficiency flight in an F-104 that morning. He took the frozen steaks out to the airplane, opened the speed brakes, put the steaks in the speed brake well, and then closed the speed brakes. Joe knew where his friends had planned to camp. He flew up to the camp site, made a reconnaissance pass, and then returned and dropped the steaks by opening the speed brakes. It is a good thing that Joe was not an accurate bomber pilot. He could have killed someone if he had hit them with 10 pounds of frozen steaks traveling at 300 MPH.
Joe was, and still is, an avid sportsman.
MILTON O. THOMPSON
I had been in flight training in the navy for a year and a half prior to the end of World War II. I remained in the navy to complete my flight training and then served in the fleet for another three years as an attack pilot and later a fighter pilot, flying off carriers in the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. I was released from active duty in November of 1949 and then enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle to complete my engineering studies. Following graduation, I worked at the Boeing Aircraft Company as a structural test and flight test engineer for two and a half years and then went to work for the NACA at Edwards in March 1956 as a research engineer.
As an engineer, I worked on the early X-airplanes and watched apprehensively as these programs wound down and were terminated. By the time I began flying as a research pilot in 1958, I felt that the glory days of the X-airplanes wer
e over and I had missed it all. In the next few years I realized that I was wrong. The golden years were still to come.
Prior to being assigned to the X-15, I had gone through a research pilot apprenticeship program at the NACA. I was assigned to relatively minor research programs initially and then graduated to more complex programs as I gained experience. I also did a lot of support flying, as did each of the other NACA pilots. When I first began flying for the NACA we had only five pilots: Joe Walker, Stan Butchart, Jack McKay, Neil Armstrong, and myself.
Among the five of us, we flew a total of fourteen airplanes. These included a P-51, a T-33, an F-100A, an F-100C, an F-102A, two F-104s, two F-107s, the X-1B, the X-1E, the B-29 mothership, a KC-135, and a C-47. Before I began flying, we had just cleaned out our hangars, getting rid of older research aircraft such as the D-558-II Skyrockets, the X-3, the YF-102, an F-101A, and a B-47. We had cleared the hangars in anticipation of acquiring the X-2 and eventually the X-15s. We never acquired the X-2 since it crashed on its last flight prior to being transferred to the NACA. We finally acquired the X-15s beginning in 1960.
My first flight as an NACA pilot was in the C-47. Within the first year I also qualified in the P-51, the T-33, the F-102A, and the B-29. The P-51, T-33, and C-47 were support aircraft. The B-29 was the X-1 mothership. I flew as copilot and pilot on several X-1 launch flights before we grounded the last X-1.
The C-47 was our real workhorse aircraft. We used it as an administrative aircraft, as a program support aircraft and on occasion as a research aircraft. We hauled engineers to meetings at various locations around the country. We hauled engineers, technicians and parts up the X-15 high range to build the tracking stations for the X-15. We used the C-47 to explore for usable emergency landing lakes for the X-15, and then we used it during the flight program to check the hardness of the lakes after the rainy season by making landings on the lakes and hoping that we could get airborne again. We used it as a tow plane to tow the first lifting body, the M2-F1. We used the C-47 in every way that it was qualified to be used and possibly in ways that it was not qualified to be used. It was truly a remarkable airplane. I enjoyed flying it and we all had more than enough opportunities to fly it.
At the Edge of Space Page 3
