To Infinity and Beyond Mach 4

 

On this date in 1961, test pilot Major Robert M. White, USAF, flew the number two North American Aviation X-15 hypersonic research rocketplane to Mach 4.43 (2,905 mph) to 77,450 feet, becoming the first pilot to exceed Mach 4. The total duration of the flight, from the airdrop from the Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress to touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, was 8 minutes, 34.1 seconds.

16,000 Hours of Flight Time

 

Lieutenant Colonel Fitzhugh Lee "Fitz" Fulton, Jr. (1925-2015) stands next to fellow test pilot, Colonel Joseph Cotton, with the North American Aviation XB-70A Valkyrie in the background at Edwards AFB, California in the Sixties. Upon his retirement from NASA, Fulton had flown more than 16,000 hours in 235 aircraft types. But his flying days started much earlier during World War II. 

In 1946 Fulton participated in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He made 225 sorties flying a Douglas C-54 Skymaster four-engine transport during the Berlin Airlift, and then the Douglas B-26 Invader light attack bomber during the Korean War. Fulton graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School in 1952. He served as project test pilot for the Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber and flew it to a World Record Altitude of 85,360.66 feet during 1962. He flew the B-52 “mother ships” for the X-15 Program from Edwards, AFB.

Fulton continued as a research test pilot for NASA, flying as project pilot for the YF-12A and YF-12C research program. He flew all the early test flights of the NASA/Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that carried the space shuttle prototype, Enterprise.  

Last Ride of The Valkyrie

 

On this day in 1969, the North American Aviation XB-70A-1-NA Valkyrie, 62-0001, made its very last flight from Edwards AFB, California, to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. NASA Research Test Pilot Fitzhugh L. Fulton, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired), and Lieutenant Colonel Emil Sturmthal, USAF, were the flight crew for the flight. On arrival at Wright-Patterson, Fulton closed out the logbook on the massive research plane and handed it over to the curator of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

A second Mach 3+ prototype strategic bomber, XB-70A-2-NA 62-0207, was destroyed when it crashed during a mid-air collision with a Lockheed F-104N Starfighter flown by NASA Chief Research Test Pilot Joseph A. Walker, in 1966. The multi-aircraft photo shoot ended in tragedy when both Walker and the B-70’s co-pilot, Major Carl S. Cross, USAF, were killed.