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
In 1955 I enlisted in the USAF and applied for Aviation Cadets.
I flew the F-100A at Nellis in mid-1958 after the F-84F at Luke during Advanced Pilot Training. I remember going into burner to 50,000 feet to see how it would fly at that altitude. Wasn’t that comfortable really. I learned about adverse yaw during a night flight when I got a little slow turning from base to final.
After Nellis, I was assigned to the 55th Tactical Fighter Squadron/20th Tactical Fighter Wing at Wethersfield where they had F-100D’s.
In 1966, I resigned my commission and joined American Airlines, where I flew DC-6, BAC 111, B727, B707, DC-10, B747, Airbus A300-600, B757, and B767.
I retired in December of 1995 at the mandatory age of 60.
