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.
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Test Pilot & Aviation Leader
Enshrined: 1999
Birth: June 6, 1925
Death: February 4, 2015
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