Robert White Passes At 85 - First at Mach 4...and 5...and 6

[rondebmar]

Obit and bio here:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/21/1539647/pilot-was-first-to-take-winged.html


More details here:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Flew+aircraft+into+space/2707839/story.html

 

[jmcquate]

From this months Air & Space magazine

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/87181842.html

Big Brass Ones !!!!!!!!!

 

[helolumpy]

Imagine the stories he could tell.... after dead-sticking an aircraft from 200,000 feet....

 

[yak52driver]

There's a great book by Milt Thompson, At The Edge of Space, covering the X-15 program. All of those guys clanked when they walked.

 

[Pugs]

There's a great book by Milt Thompson, At The Edge of Space, covering the X-15 program. All of those guys clanked when they walked.

Great book. He had a follow-on about the lifting bodies but didn't finish it before he passed. The folks who did finish it didn't do a great job but it's one of the few records of another neat program by someone who was in the thick of it.

Who of my generation can forget the opening of this? http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x910ca_six-million-dollar-man-intro-openin_shortfilms

or this

 

[yak52driver]

Great book. He had a follow-on about the lifting bodies but didn't finish it before he passed. The folks who did finish it didn't do a great job but it's one of the few records of another neat program by someone who was in the thick of it.

Who of my generation can forget the opening of this? http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x910ca_six-million-dollar-man-intro-openin_shortfilms

or this

I've got that book, too, Flying Without Wings. You're right, the book wasn't as good when the writer tried to finish the book. He made a good effort, but it lost the personal feeling that Milt Thompson wrote with.

When I was a kid I sat mezmerized watching The Six Million Dollar Man. What's amazing is they rebuilt that lifting body (M2F2) and it flew again as the M2F3. PIO's were a problem with those aircraft.