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This Day in History – June 10, 1969 – The X-15 gets a place in history

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

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Menard, David W.

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  • Menard, David W.

David Walter Menard

Preferred Name: Dave
Date of Birth: May 5, 1936
Highest Military Grade: E-8 – Master Sergeant
Hometown: Elmhurst, IL
Headed West Date: February 5, 2013
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Dave Menard knew more than almost anyone about the F-100. Author of many books on military aircraft, he was the go-to guy if you needed to know something about the Hun.

He followed his boyhood dream and joined the air force in 1955 where he served as a maintainer of aircraft in Africa, four countries

in Europe, Greenland, and five Asian countries, in addition to six stateside postings. After retiring as a master sergeant in 1977, he immediately continued his work on aircraft at the Air Force museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, later serving as a historian due to his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history.

Retiring from that is 1999, he began following his other passion, care of children by volunteering at the Dayton children’s Hospital, amassing 32,000 hours, the equivalent of working 16 years at forty hours a week fifty weeks a year!!!

As a member of the Super Sabre Society, Dave was always there when the association called upon him for technical and historical information – He was a true aviation and military professional in every respect and held in high regard by our members. (source: Benjamin Dailey)

He will be missed.

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Civilian Education:

  • 1954 Glenbard High School

Dave Menard died on Feb. 5, 2013, in Dayton Ohio where he lived since 1977. He was born in Elmhurst Ill on May 5, 1936, moved to Lombard Ill in 1945 where he graduated from Glenbard High in 1954, followed by a year of study at the University of Illinois at Navy Pier.

He followed his boyhood dream and joined the air force in 1955 where he served maintaining aircraft in Africa, four countries in Europe, Greenland, and five Asian countries, in addition to six stateside postings. After retiring as a master sergeant in 1977, he continued his work on aircraft at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH. He served as a historian due to his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history. After retiring in 1999, he began following his other passion, care of children by volunteering at the Dayton Children’s Hospital, amassing 32,000 hours, the equivalent of working 16 years at forty hours a week fifty weeks a year!!!

Meanwhile, he developed a passion for Irish step dancing, viewing River Dance over sixty times and supporting several Irish dance troupes. He lived his life in service to his country….and children in general.

Menard, David Before
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