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
Casey Roberts says “On one of my early flights in the F-100C, I was rudely reminded why they put rudders in the aircraft. It was a very tight base to final turn, I went almost inverted too close to Mother Earth. A good lesson, as I was not really needing to use rudder in the F-84F)”
After retiring, Casey “flew for Braniff Airways from 1964-1982. [He] started as a flight engineer on DC-6, then copilot on Convair 340/440 then on to BAC-ONE- Eleven. In 1997 [he] checked out as Captain on the BAC ONE 11, then Captain B-727.
After Braniff shut down in 1982 a small group of Minneapolis-based pilots and flight attendants started Sun Country Airlines. We began charter service in January 1983 with one Boeing 727-200, I served in many hats as did my partners, pilots, cleaners, buyers, caterers, employer negotiators, etc. Over the next five years, we added 5 more 727’s and obtained a DC-10-40. I was the senior pilot and served as President and COO from November 1983 until June 1988. The company sold in Oct 1988. I remained on as Captain of DC-10 until I turned sixty in 1997. I went back into the office as a VP, then retired in 2001.”
