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
“On 26 May 1977, Captain Lemoine was flying an F-100F functional check flight. During a right turn at FL 450, while in full afterburner and at Mach 1 .1 , the canopy departed the aircraft without warning.
Captain Lemoine immediately decelerated to 220 KIAS and established an emergency descent to 2,000 feet MSL. During the descent, he encountered cold, buffeting, and loss of communications with Houston Center. While proceeding direct to USNAS New Orleans at 2,000 feet MSL, the aircraft suddenly nosed over 15 to 20 degrees. Using both hands and considerable force, Captain Lemoine was able to break the descent and establish a shallow climb. During the climb, the stick oscillated from side to side, and the throttle moved forward to full afterburner without pilot assistance. The throttle was retarded, and the afterburner manually disengaged.
At 4,000 feet, Captain Lemoine was able to contact New Orleans Approach Control and the 159 TFG Command Post. The Supervisor of Flying, when advised of the flight control difficulties, coordinated the immediate launch of an F-100D for an inflight check. After effecting a rejoin, the pilot of the F-1 OOD visually checked the rear cockpit and saw that the seat kit had broken loose and was pressing against the control stick.
Captain Lemoine then rolled the aircraft inverted and pushed forward on the stick. The stick immediately became free, and the aircraft was rolled to an upright attitude. The chase pilot made another visual check of the aircraft and observed the seat kit resting against the headset.
After verifying this by the rearview mirror, Captain Lemoine pushed forward on the stick and observed the seat kit depart the aircraft. The emergency terminated with an uneventful landing at USNAS New Orleans.
Captain Lemoine’s superior airmanship and cool reaction to an extremely stressful situation resulted in the saving of a valuable fighter aircraft and prevented possible injury to himself. Captain Lemoine’s actions qualify him as the Tactical Air Command Aircrew of Distinction.”(1)
Source: (1) TACAttack, December 1977