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
From his youngest memory he loved airplanes and made it his life’s mission to fly. A dream he achieved by applying for and being accepted for pilot training with the United States Air Force.
Mike married his high school sweetheart, Nancy L. Hartigan, in March of 1953 and they enjoyed a wide variety of duty assignments across both oceans before she preceded him in death in June 2012.
Mike lived, breathed and loved everything about airplanes and flying. He was also a model airplane builder and one of the early pioneers of the ducted fan technology in model airplanes. His other loves besides his family and flying were gathering the gang together at Lynnies, ice cold beer, Mexican food and soup of all kinds.
