25 April 1946 Frank Kendall “Pete” Everest, test pilot at Edwards AFB, CA is airdropped from a Boeing EB-50D Superfortress in a Bell X-3 supersonic rocket plane. This was the 10th flight of the X-2 program and the 3rd powered flight. Everest had test-flown the Bell X-1B to a speed of Mach 2.3 (2.3 times
After serving in the USAF, Keith Balcom worked as a flight engineer for TransWorld Airlines out of NY where he flew the Boeing 707 and 727 from 1968-1970. From 1970-1973, Balcom was a Sky Marshal for the U.S. Treasury Department out of NY for International flights. In 1974 he became a project engineer and flight test operations engineer at Boeing in Seattle, WA until 1976, when he became the Flight Engineer for the Boeing 727 with TransWorld Airlines again out of NY.
Keith went on to work as an Air Safety Engineer for the Airline Pilots Association out of Washington, DC from 1981-1983. From 1983 until 16 years later, Balcom was Flight Engineer (Boeing 727), then First Officer & Captain (Boeing 737) with Piedmont/US Airways out of Norfolk, VA, and Baltimore, MD.
Captain Keith Balcom retired from US Airways on November 1, 1999.
