Air Force pilot Major Cecil Powell stands in front of the X-24A after a research flight. Built for the Air Force by Martin Marietta, the X-24A was a bulbous vehicle shaped like a tear drop, with three vertical fins at the rear for directional control. It weighed 6,270 pounds, was just over 24 feet long, and had a width of nearly 14 feet. The first unpowered glide flight of the X-24A was on April 17, 1969. The pilot was Air Force Major Jerauld Gentry. Gentry also piloted the vehicle on its first powered flight March 19, 1970. It was flown 28 times in a program which, like the HL-10, helped validate the concept that a space shuttle vehicle could be landed unpowered. Fastest speed in the X-24A was l,036 mph (Mach 1.6). The pilot was John Manke, who also reached the highest altitude in the vehicle, 71,400 feet. He was also the pilot on its final flight June 4, 1971. The X-24A was later modified with a different nose configuration and became the X-24B.
NASA Media Usage Guidelines
Credit: NASA
Image Number: E-22715
Date: November 30, 1970
Tags: X-24 Lifting Body X-24A X-24B Major Cecil Powell NASA Flight Research Center
An unofficial sustained American aviation altitude record for women was set July 1, 1979, by astronaut candidate Kathryn D. Sullivan in a NASA WB-57F reconnaissance aircraft.
The record altitude of 63,300 feet was reached during a four-hour flight. Sullivan, in a high altitude pressure suit, operated color infrared cameras and multispectral scanning equipment as the WB-57F spent one and one-half hours of the Big Bend area of West Texas. Piloting the aircraft was Jim Korkowski, one of the NASA Airborne Instrumentation Research Program Pilots. The flight was out of Ellington AFB near Houston. Sullivan, who has a doctorate in geology, was selected in 1978 as one of 35 astronaut candidates training for the Shuttle program. She trained to be a mission specialist and flights in the WB-57F were training in preparation for her assignments on the Shuttle. Sullivan later served as a mission specialist on STS-41G, STS-31, and STS-45.
NASA Media Usage Guidelines
Credit: NASA
Image Number: 79H-586
Date: July 1, 1979
Tags: Kathryn Sullivan Jim Korkowski WB-57F Ellington AFB STS-41G STS- 31 STS-34
Amelia Earhart standing in front of the Lockheed Electra in which she disappeared in July 1937. Born in Atchison, Kansas in 1897, Amelia Earhart did not begin flying until after her move to California in 1920. After taking lessons from aviation pioneer Neta Snook in a Curtiss Jenny, Earhart set out to break flying records, breaking the women altitude records in 1922. Earhart continually promoted women in aviation and in 1928 was invited to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Accompanying pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon as a passenger on the Fokker Friendship, Earhart became an international celebrity after the completion of the flight. In May 1932 Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across in the Atlantic. In 1935 she completed the first solo flight from Hawaii to California. In the meantime Earhart continued to promote aviation and helped found the group, the Ninety-Nines, an organization dedicated to female aviators. On June 1, 1937, Earhart and navigator, Fred Noonan, left Miami, Florida on an around the world flight. Earhart, Noonan and their Lockheed Electra disappeared after a stop in Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937. Earhart had only 7,000 miles of her trip remaining when she disappeared. While a great deal of mystery surrounds the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, her contributions to aviation and women's issues have inspired people for over 80 years.
Image Number : SI-A-45874
Tags: Amelia Earhart Lockheed Electra
NASA research pilot Bill Dana takes a moment to watch NASA's NB-52B cruise overhead after a research flight in the HL-10. On the left, John Reeves can be seen at the cockpit of the lifting body. The HL-10 was one of five lifting body designs flown at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, from July 1966 to November 1975 to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space.
NASA Media Usage Guidelines
Credit: NASA
Image Number: ECN-2203
Date: May 20, 1969
Tags: Bill Dana Boeing B-52 HL-10 Lifting Body M2-F2 NASA Flight Research Center
Description: Ames Chief test pilot George Cooper discusses phases of flight evaluation tests. NACA personnel (l to R) Air Force Major E. Sommerich; Ames Engineer Seth Anderson, Lt. Col. Tavasti; and George Cooper pose in front of the thrust reverser on F-94C-1 Starfire.
Note: Used in publication in Flight Research at Ames; 57 Years of Development and Validation of Aeronautical Technology
NASA Media Usage Guidelines
Credit: NASA
Image Number: A-23928
Date: May 21, 1958
Tags: NACA NASA NASA Ames Research Center George Cooper 1958