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
Ivy McCoy’s MiG Kill
“‘Chevy’ flight was the third MiGCAP formation for a large, Ubon-based F-4 strike in the Hanoi area. It was led by Maj Ivy McCoy and his Weapon Systems Operator (WS0), Maj Fred Brown, in F-4D 66-7463. As explained by Peter E Davies in his book USAF F-4 Phantom II MIG Killers 1972-73, this famous aircraft had been assigned to Capts Steve Ritchie and Chuck DeBellevue for Ritchle’s fifth kill at the and of August, and it probably still bore the worn, white-stencilled names of its former ‘owners’ on its nose.
‘Chevy’ flight moved in to meet a wave of MiGs as the previous MiGCAP (‘Buick’ flight) headed for the tankers. Ivy McCoy Initially passed the MiGs head-on in cloud. Turning quickly through 180 degrees at an altitude of 12,000 ft, he saw contrails at his ‘one o’clock’ position and then observed MiGs descending ahead and slightly to the right of his flight path.
He turned behind them as Fred Brown unsuccessfully attempted to get a radar lock and released three AIM-7E-2s in quick succession. All three missiles fell away without guiding.
Maj McCoy followed the MiG in a shallow, 20-degree banking turn and fired three AIM-9E Sidewinders. The third missile detonated just 250 ft ahead of the F-4D, and very close to the MIG’s tailpipe. The rear fuselage of the North Vietnamese jet began to burn and disintegrate, causing its pilot to eject. Ivy McCoy noted that the time was 1425.40 hrs exact.After 66-7463’s fourth MiG kill on May 10, 1972, Steve Ritchie and the jet’s crew chief, Sgt Reginald Taylor, had intended to name the F-4D ‘Smash Four’. Although this nickname was never painted on the jet, it acquired a sixth kill marking after McCoy and Brown’s victory, making it the highest-scoring US combat aircraft since the Korean War.”(1)