Archives: Today in History

From This Day in Aviation History by Brian R. Swopes, thisdayinaviationhistory.com 20 April 1962: “Neil’s Cross-Country.” NASA Research Test Pilot Neil Alden Armstrong conducts a flight to test the Minneapolis-Honeywell MH-96 flight control system installed in the third North American Aviation X-15, serial number 56-6672. The new system combined both aerodynamic and reaction thruster flight […]

Albert Scott Crossfield, Jr., was born at Berkeley, California, 2 October 1921. At the age of 5, he contracted pneumonia and fell into a coma. He was not expected to survive. His condition improved and he was confined to bed for many months. Effects of the illness lasted throughout his childhood. It was during his

18 April 1958: At Edwards Air Force Base, California, test pilot Lieutenant Commander George Clinton Watkins, United States Navy, set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Altitude Record of 23,449 meters (76,932 feet) ¹ with a Grumman F11F-1F Tiger, Bureau of Aeronautics serial number (Bu. No.) 138647. The F11F-1F had also reached an impressive Mach 2.04