![]() 11/10/2015 at 15:43 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
‘cause I think it does.
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![]() 11/10/2015 at 15:57 |
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The X-2 was such a pretty plane.
![]() 11/10/2015 at 16:07 |
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The X-2 was fast, but Scott Crossfield beat it to Mach 2 in the Douglas Skyrocket. Both the X-2 and the Skyrocket get a mention in November 20’s aviation history post. Also, the pilot in this photo, Jean Ziegler, and one the crewmen on the B-50 mothership, were killed when the X-2 exploded during a captive flight.
![]() 11/10/2015 at 16:12 |
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That’s Skip Ziegler in the cockpit. He later lost his life testing the X-2. One of the many losses that would the catalyst for the formation of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots so those guys could actually purchase life insurance.
![]() 11/10/2015 at 16:27 |
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You really know your aviation history. Are you involved in the industry or just an enthusiast?
![]() 11/10/2015 at 18:29 |
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I grew up in Lancaster, CA in the shadow of Edwards AFB and it’s Dryden Flight Test Center and the infamous Plant 42 in Palmdale. The test pilots from the Golden Age (Yeager, Cotton, Fulton, Crossfield, etc, etc) were friends of my parents and in some cases fathers of classmates/friends. My mom worked for North American/Rockwell my whole childhood and my dad was indirectly the reason the Society of Experimental Test Pilots was first formed: so that those guys could buy a group Life insurance plan; that was the only way to make it affordable enough since theirs was such a high-risk profession at the time. So, yeah, I’m a huge enthusiast and grew up with test pilots as heroes when other kids idolized sports starts.
![]() 11/10/2015 at 18:32 |
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Tose are some pretty big names just to have circulating in one’s childhood. Very cool.