Landing Anything Anywhere

 

On this day in 1956, while carrying the U.S. Navy’s Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket, problems developed aboard both the research rocketplane and the “mothership.” The modified Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress had a runaway propeller on the Number 4 engine, outboard on the right wing. The propeller broke apart, slicing through the Number 3 engine, the fuselage, and striking the Number 2 engine.

Research test pilot John “Jack” MacKay, in the cockpit of the Skyrocket, had called “No drop!” because of problems with the rocketplane, but he was jettisoned so that the mothership could maintain flight and make an emergency landing. McKay dumped the Skyrocket’s propellants and glided to the lake bed. The Superfortress pilots, Stanley Butchart and Neil Armstrong landed the plane safely on the lake bed at Edwards AFB. Even more monumental, Armstrong would safely land on the Moon thirteen years later.