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
Gene spent twenty-one years with Virginia Air National Guard and thirty years flying with American Airlines. He took early retirement at age 54 as a 767 Captain. He is an NRA gun safety instructor and NRA recruiter.
His time in the ANG as a pilot is remembered as … “my past three and one half years have been spent as a pilot in the Virginia Air National Guard, a time which, should I not live another day, is cherished more deeply than any time period of my·life…”(1)
Source (1): https://www.192wg.ang.af.mil/Portals/5/documents/VANGUARDS/1973/1973%20July.pdf
