10 June 1969: The U.S. Air Force donated the first North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6670, to the Smithsonian Institution for display at the National Air and Space Museum. The first of three X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes built by North American for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee (NACA, the predecessor of NASA), 56-6670 made the first glide flight and
“It’s been a good ride.
Kind of a side note, out of our class at Luke (62F) I got over 1000 hours in the Hun and never inflight refueled. At Luke, refueling and ACM were near the end of the program but when we got to it, the Cuban Crisis happened and when we went to the base one morning, all the planes were gone! I was flown to Florida. We sat around for a week I guess, and then they graduated us saying we could finish that training at our new assignment. Since my only tour in the Hun was Ramstein, and they had no requirement to inflight refuel, I got my 1000 hours and never had the pleasure of hooking up.
My longest flight was about 2:45, non-stop Ramstein to Wheelus.”
After serving in the USAF, Don flew from 1967-1997 for United Air Lines. He piloted the 737, 727, DC 8, and DC-10, was Copilot on the 727, DC 10, 747-400, and Captain on the 727.
