@NASAARMSTRONG

PLANNER

2021 - 2022

Construction started on the new NACA station in Edwards, CA in early February 1953. On a windy day, January 27, 1953, at a groundbreaking ceremony stood left to right: Gerald Truszynski, Head of Instrumentation Division; Joseph Vensel, Head of the Operations Branch; Walter Williams, Head of the Station, scooping the first shovel full of dirt; Marion Kent, Head of

Personnel; and California state official Arthur Samet.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

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22DEC12

@NASAARMSTRONG

12 December 1989:First flight of the F-15 Self-Repairing FlightControl System (SRFCS)

13 December 1985:X-29 first Mach 1 flight

25 December: Christmas Day

22 December 1966:HL-10 first flight

17 December 2004:NASA retires NB-52B 0008

21 December 1979:AD-1 first flight piloted by Thomas McMurtry

17 December 1968:XB-70 final flight

A rainbow frames the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 747SP during its first Southern Hemisphere deployment in Christchurch, New Zealand, in July 2013.

08 September 1966:First episode of the television series “Star Trek”

27 September 1959:NACA High-Speed Flight Station name amendedto the NASA Flight Research Center, elevatingthe facility to full center status

06 September: Labor Day

DATES TO REMEMBER:01 September 1964:First flight of the XB-70

30 September 1946:13 NACA employees arrive at Muroc Army Airfield

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22 SEP 09

@NASAARMSTRONG

12 September 1962:President John F. Kennedy gave “moon”speech before a Joint Session of Congress

23 September 1975:Bill Dana makes the final flight of the X-24B

Built of tubular aluminum alloy like a giant four-legged bedstead, the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) was to simulate a lunar landing profile from around 1500 feet to the Moon’s surface. The first flight, Oct. 30, 1964, NASA research pilot Joe Walker flew it three times for a

total of just under 60 seconds

11 November: Veterans Day

13 November 1968:John Manke flew the HL-10 in firstsuccessful powered flight

09 November 1961:First X-15 flight to reach Mach 6

16 November 2004: X-43A reached a speed of Mach 9.6,

24 November: Thanksgiving Day

14 November 1949:NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit renamed the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station, becoming an independently managed NACA facility

15 November 1973: John Manke piloted the X-24B in first powered flight

DATES TO REMEMBER:

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22NOV11

@NASAARMSTRONG

Air Force test pilot Maj. Michael J. Adams stands beside X-15 ship number one. Adams was selected for the X-15 program in 1966 and made his first flight on Oct. 6, 1966. On Nov. 15, 1967, Adams made his seventh and final X-15 flight. The X-15 launched from the B-52, but during the ascent an electrical problem affected the X-15's control system. The aircraft crashed northwest of Cuddeback Lake, California. The X-15 broke up above 60,00 feet, killing Adams. He was posthumously awarded Air Force astronaut wings because his final flight exceeded 50 miles in altitude. Adams was the only pilot lost in the 199-flight X-15 program.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

03 October 1967:“Pete” Knight reaches Mach 6.7 in X-15

11 October 1990:First flight of the X-31 Enhanced FighterManeuverability demonstrator

24 October 1968:Last X-15 flight, its 199th mission

27 October 1954:X-3 “Stiletto” inertia coupling flight: -6.7/+7g’s in .5 sec

30 October 1964: Joseph Walker first flight of LLRV,world’s first pure fly-by-wire aircraft

01 October 1958:NACA transitions to NASA in response to Sputnik

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22 OCT 10

@NASAARMSTRONG

X-15 Pilots, Left to Right: Air Force pilot William J. "Pete" Knight, Air Force Major Robert A. Rushworth, Air Force Captain Joseph H. Engle, NASA pilot Milton O. Thompson, NASA pilot Bill

Dana, and NASA pilot John B. "Jack" McKay.

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02 October 2019:X-57 arrives at AFRC

26 October 1977:Last free-flight of space shuttle Enterprise

28 October 2015: First flight of the Prandtl-D No. 3

09 October 1999:Final flight of Lockheed SR-71, now on displayat NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

12 October 2018:Theatrical release of “First Man” based on the 2005book “First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong”by James R. Hansen

03 October 1991:Marta Bohn-Meyer becomes the firstSR-71 female Flight Test Engineer

Marta Bohn-Meyer, First SR-71 Female Flight Test Engineer Chief Engineer, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

DATES TO REMEMBER:06 November 1958:X-1E final flight

11 November: Veterans Day

09 November 1962:John "Jack" McKay experienced an enginefailure while flying the X-15 and landed atMud Lake, Nevada

15 November 2002: X-53 first flight

20 November 1953:D-558-II first Mach 2 flight

15 November 1967:X-15 No. 3 crashed, killing USAF Maj. Mike Adams

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25 November: Thanksgiving Day

@NASAARMSTRONG30 November 2010:SOFIA first science flight

X-29 during a 1991 research flight. Smoke generators in the nose of the aircraft were used to help researchers see the behavior of the air flowing over the aircraft. The smoke here is demonstrating forebody vortex flow. This mission was flown September 10, 1991, by NASA

research pilot Rogers Smith.

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22SEP09

@NASAARMSTRONG

06 September: Labor Day

24 September 1929:Premier of Fritz Lang’s Frau im Mond

01 September 1974:SR-71 flies New York to London in1 hour, 54 minutes, 56.4 seconds

30 September 1946:13 NACA employees arrive at Muroc Army Airfield

12 September 1962:President John F. Kennedy gave “moon”speech before a Joint Session of Congress

23 September 1975:Bill Dana makes the final flight of the X-24B

The single-seat F-16XL, NASA 849, joins up with an SR-71A, NASA 844, as crews set up for one of the flights in the sonic boom research program conducted by the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. During the missions, the F-16XL probed the shockwaves generated by the SR-71, while at lower altitudes sensors on an F-18 and YO-3 at

a lower altitude, as well as on the ground, recorded data from the same shockwave.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

12 December 1989:First flight of the F-15 Self-Repairing FlightControl System (SRFCS)

13 December 1985:X-29 first Mach 1 flight

25 December: Christmas Day

22 December 1966:HL-10 first flight

17 December 2004:NASA retires NB-52B 0008

21 December 1979:AD-1 first flight piloted by Thomas McMurtry

17 December 1968:XB-70 final flight

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22 DEC 12

@NASAARMSTRONG

Activities in a blockhouse during the launch of Jupiter-C/Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958

DATES TO REMEMBER:

05 August 1930:Neil Armstrong’s birthday

13 August 2001:Solar-electric Helios Prototype reaches96,863 feet altitude in horizontal flight

22 August 1963:Joseph Walker reached 354,200 feet altitude in theX-15, unofficial world altitude record, and became thefirst man to visit space twice

01 August 1973:First glide flight of the X-24B

15 August 1928:NACA Rpt. 308: First accident investigation manual

12 August 1977:First free-flight of shuttle Enterprise

@NASAARMSTRONG

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0801 August 2013:First flight of the Prandtl-D No. 2

Joe Walker beside the X-1E at the NASA High-Speed Flight Station, Edwards,California. The dice and "Little Joe" are prominently displayed under the cockpit area. Walker is shown in the photo wearing an early Air Force partial pressure suit. This protected the pilot if cockpit pressure was lost above 50,000 feet. Similar suits were used in such aircraft as B-47s, B-52s, F-104s, U-2s, and the X-2 and D-558-II research aircraft. Five years later, Walker reached 354,200 feet in the X-15. Similar artwork - reading "Little Joe the II" - was applied to the record-breaking X-15. These cases are two of the few times that research aircraft carried such

nose art.

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22 JAN

01 January: New Year’s Day

17 January: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

25 January: NASA Day of Remembrance

02 January 1933:Orville Wright made AIAA member

28 January 1986:Loss of space shuttle Challenger andits seven astronauts

31 January 1958:Explorer-1, the first satellite launchedby the United States

27 January 1967:Apollo 1 pad fire

04 January 2010:David McBride became Center Director

@NASAARMSTRONG

The four principal HL-10 pilots are seen here with the lifting body aircraft. They are, left to right; Air Force Major Jerauld R. Gentry, Air Force test pilot Peter Hoag, and NASA pilots John A. Manke and Bill Dana. All are wearing the pressure suits needed for flying above

50,000 feet.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

17 July 1962:Bob White first to take the X-15 tospace at 300,000 feet

12 July 1966:First glide flight of the M2-F2

02 July 2019:Orion Ascent Abort (AA)-2 launched

04 July: Independence Day

20 July 2007First X-48 flight

26 July 2003:First flight of X-56A MUTT

27 July 1979:First HiMAT flight

24 July 1979:First NASA winglets flight

@NASAARMSTRONG

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16 July 1969:Apollo 11 launch - “One Giant Leap”

The HiMAT (Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology) subscale research vehicle, seen here during a research flight, was flown by the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from mid 1979 to January 1983. The aircraft demonstrated advanced fighter technologies that have been used in the development of many modern high performance

military aircraft.

@NASAARMSTRONG

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DATES TO REMEMBER:

04 February 1984:First free flight of the Manned Maneuvering Unit

21 February: Presidents’ Day

27 February 1970:HL-10 reaches 90,303 feet, a newrecord set by William “Bill” Dana

18 February 1970:HL-10 reaches Mach 1.86

01 February 2003:Loss of space shuttle Columbia and itsseven-member crew

NASA's historic B-52 mother ship carried the X-43A and its Pegasus booster rocket on a captive carry flight from Edwards Air Force Base Jan. 26, 2004. The X-43A and its booster remained mated to the B-52 throughout the two-hour flight, intended to check its readiness for launch. The hydrogen-fueled aircraft is autonomous and has a wingspan of approximately

5 feet, measures 12 feet long and weighs about 2,800 pounds.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

02 June 2001:X-43A No.1 crashes into Pacific Ocean

02 June 1970:First flight of M2-F3

23 June 1961:X-15 first aircraft to exceed Mach 5

27 June 2013:PRANDTL-D demonstrates proverse yaw

08 June 1959:NB-52B heavy-lift airborne launch aircraftair-launched the X-15 hypersonic researchrocket on its first unpowered glide flight

20 June 1951:First flight of the X-5 research aircraft

@NASAARMSTRONG

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NASA research pilot John A. Manke is seen here in front of the M2-F3 Lifting Body. Manke made the first supersonic flight of a lifting body and the first landing of a lifting body on a hard surface runway. He also served as Director of the Flight Operations and Support Directorate at the Dryden Flight Research Center prior to its integration with Ames Research Center in

October 1981.

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DATES TO REMEMBER:

03 March 1915:The NACA was created

10 March 1948:Herbert Hoover first civilian to go supersonic

26 March 1976:Center officially named NASA’s Hugh L. DrydenFlight Research Center

27 March 2004:X-43A reached record speed of Mach 6.83

25 March 1960:Joseph Walker first NASA flight in an X-15

07 March 1961:X-15 first aircraft to exceed Mach 4

01 March 2014:Center was redesignated NASA’s ArmstrongFlight Research Center

@NASAARMSTRONG

Famed astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon during the historic Apollo 11 space mission in July 1969, served for seven years as a research pilot at the NACA-NASA High-Speed Flight Station, now Armstrong Flight Research Center, at Edwards, California, before he entered the space program. Armstrong was actively engaged in both piloting and engineering aspects of the X-15 program from its inception, he is pictured here “flying” the first reaction control system motion simulator developed for use on the X-15. He completed the first flight in the aircraft equipped with a new flow-direction sensor (ball nose) and the initial flight in an X-15 equipped with a self-adaptive flight control system. He worked closely with designers and engineers in development of the adaptive system, and made seven flights in the rocket plane from December 1960 until July 1962. During those fights he reached a peak

altitude of 207,500 feet in the X-15-3, and a speed of 3,989 mph (Mach 5.74) in the X-15-1.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

03 May 1948:D-558-I transonic research airplane crash,killing Howard “Tick” Lilly

06 May 2010:First test of the Orion Pad Abort-1

30 May: Memorial Day

25 May 1972:First pure digital fly-by-wire flight, F-8

10 May 1967:M2-F2 crashes, Bruce Peterson survived crash(Opening scene of the Six Million Dollar Man)

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09 May 1969:John Manke conducted first supersoniclifting-body flight in the HL-10 (altitude of 53,300 feet and speed of Mach 1.13)

@NASAARMSTRONG

The Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory’s pilot corps during the final days of World War II: from left to right, Joseph Vensel, Howard Lilly, William Swann, and Joseph Walker. Lilly also flew in the 1946 National Air Races and followed Vensel to Muroc in July 1947 where he

became the second NACA pilot to penetrate the sound barrier on March 31, 1948. On May 3, 1948, Lilly became the first NACA pilot to die in the line of duty.

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DATES TO REMEMBER:02 April 1987:First flight of the F/A-18 High Angle-of-AttackResearch Vehicle (HARV)

05 April 1963:Milton Thompson lifted the M2-F1's nose offof the ground for the first time using a groundtow from a souped-up a Pontiac Catalina convertible

05 April 2018:AFRC shares the Collier Trophy for Auto-GCAS

20 April 1962:Neil Armstrong makes longest flight in X-15,12 minutes, 28 seconds

14 April 1981:Space shuttle Columbia completed first spaceflight

@NASAARMSTRONG

Separating the real from the im

aginedthrough flight.