#twih

This Week in History: The X-15 Hypersonic Plane

At about this time in 1963, a NASA test pilot soars into space. Joseph A. Walker was then flying an experimental spaceplane, the X-15. The trip made him the first to twice pass the Kármán line, the internationally accepted altitude where outer space begins.

Do you know about the X-15 hypersonic plane? Three were built, then piloted by NASA and U.S. Air Force pilots. From 1959 to 1968, these planes would conduct 199 different missions in Earth’s upper atmosphere.

“The North American Aviation X-15 rocket planes,” a NASA website concludes, “designed to explore the problems of atmospheric and space flight at supersonic and hypersonic speeds . . . contributed directly to the success of the Apollo lunar missions.”

This Week in History: The First Mach 3 Flight

During this week in 1956, Captain Milburn “Mel” Apt becomes the first to fly faster than Mach 3. Sadly, his Bell X-2 supersonic aircraft went into a spin mere seconds later. The intrepid pilot was unable to eject in time.

“These are powerful rocket planes,” Air Force Magazine described, “each icebox white, small, and more powerful than any engine man has ever built. They are rapier-nosed guided missiles, guided by men who are a new breed of pilots. . . . Probing the unknown, their missions are dangerous.”

Apt was among the best test pilots of his day, and he was known for his dogged determination to save any plane that he was flying. He once brought a plane back with its engine on fire. “He hated to lose the airplane,” another test pilot said. “And, as a result of getting it back, the plane was extensively redesigned.”

This Week in History: Battle of Great Bridge

At about this time in 1775, American militia Colonel William Woodford reports his victory at the Battle of Great Bridge in Virginia. “This was a second Bunker’s Hill affair, in miniature,” Woodford wrote, “with this difference, that we kept our post, and had only one man wounded in the hand.”

Great Bridge would prove to be the first American land victory since the “shot heard round the world” at the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Tensions had been high in Virginia for some time. You can imagine that a British effort to seize gunpowder just made things worse, yet that’s exactly what Royal Governor Lord Dunmore ordered during the spring of 1775.

This Week in History: Douglas World Cruisers

During this week in 1924, U.S. Army Air Service pilots complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took 175 days! American pilots had traveled more than 26,000 miles at an average speed of 72.5 miles per hour.

Eight men began the trip in Seattle on April 6. They flew four planes, each named for an American city: Seattle (pictured), Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans. One pilot and one mechanic manned each plane.

“The betting in Seattle is that not more than one plane will get around,” Lt. Leslie Arnold, Chicago’s mechanic, wrote. “Of course we don’t agree. Nevertheless, I wonder just how many of us will get all the way around.”

His concern was justified. The pilots immediately ran into trouble during the first leg of the trip to Canada.