Learning Center Our Enshrinees

Fitzhugh “Fitz” Fulton

• Flew support for the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests and subsequently completed 225 humanitarian missions during the Berlin Airlift.
• Piloted 55 combat missions during the Korean Conflict in the Douglas B-26 Invader.
• Completed the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School in 1952 and flew the B-29 and B-50 which launched the X-1 and X-2 rocket plane.
• Was the only Air Force pilot to fly a Boeing NB-36H with an atomic reactor on board and one of two pilots to fly XB-60 test aircraft.
• Project pilot on the B-58 supersonic bomber program and set an international altitude record of 85,360 feet with it in 1962.
• Received the 1962 Harmon International Aviation Trophy from President Lyndon B. Johnson as the “world’s outstanding aviator.”
• Piloted the Mach 3 XB-70 Valkyrie prototype and flew 63 of the 129 flights.
• Became chief test pilot at NASA in 1966; Dryden Flight Research Facility where he tested the X-15, 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and SR-71 Blackbird prototypes.
• Was the project pilot on all early tests of the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft used to air-launch the Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise in the approach and landing tests in 1977.
• Became the flight operations director and chief research pilot for fellow Enshrinee Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites Company.