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
David was born in Wooster, Ohio in 1931 but eventually moved with his family to Arcadia, California. He grew up an only child but raised by three sisters and an uncle in a unique family situation when his mother died and his father was called off to WWII. He would grow up with a fascination with trains and a love of flying.
This love of flight would lead to a career in the USAF as a fighter pilot, serving his country for over 2 decades of his life. During this time he would find the love of his life, Joan. They would marry, travel the world, and have three children.
Retirement from the Air Force lead to two successful business ventures in the Austin area: Pierson House of Flowers on Anderson Lane followed by Longhorn copies on Guadalupe.
A final retirement allowed them to move to Wimberley, Texas, and travel the country in an RV. Not long after Joan’s death, Dave moved back to Austin to be near two of his children.
From a story by Lacy Breckenridge in Issue 35 of The Intake: about his and Dave’s trip to France: “These two-part-humorous, part-scary events happened to Squadron Commander Meier with Lt. David Sands in his back seat.
About 30 minutes after the first refueling, Lt. Sands got bored in the back seat, and decided to check the fuel gages without informing Meier. This is accomplished by pushing a button and observing needle-type fuel gages as they decrease from full to low, and at a prescribed point, a red low fuel light on a caution warning panel in both cockpits comes on.
I think Meier almost had a heart attack when that light came on, and his comments to Sands are not printable. Shortly after that, Sands, in an effort to be productive, and again relieve his boredom, decided to replace one of the individual instrument light bulbs that was burned out. He found a spare light bulb and in the process of inserting it, the light bulb shorted, sparked, and blew out all of his instrument lights in the back seat.
Needless to say, with sparks in the back seat, Meier almost had his second heart attack. In strong fighter pilot language, he ordered Sands to just sit there and not touch anything!!!”