Walker still a legend after 40 years

http://www.avpress.com/n/10/0610_s7.hts ^ | Saturday, June 10, 2006 | ALLISON GATLIN

[BenLurkin]

Test pilot Joe Walker was killed June 8, 1966, when his F-104 chase plane collided in midair with an XB-70 supersonic bomber during a formation flight for a publicity photo. The catastrophic accident took the life of the top NASA test pilot, who earned astronaut wings by piloting the X-15 into space three times, as well as that of Air Force Maj. Carl Cross, one of two pilots of the XB-70.

Thursday, on the 40th anniversary of that fateful flight, Walker's son and other admirers visited the crash site in a remote portion of the Mojave Desert to pay their respects.

"I was just always curious," Jim Walker, now 53, said about visiting the crash site. "For the longest time I really had no idea where it was."

For him, the visit on the 40th anniversary was coincidental. He found out about others making the trip and decided at the last minute to join them.

The crowd of visitors - about 14 in all - made the occasion less sentimental or reflective than if he had been by himself, Walker said.

Aviation archaeologist Peter Merlin tracked down Walker's crash site in the mid-1990s with fellow enthusiast Tony Moore, and the two served as historians and guides to Thursday's visitors.

"We had looked for it and practically turned our Jeep around on top of the cockpit site without seeing it," Merlin said.

The crash sites for the XB-70 and two sites for the F-104 - the cockpit and fuselage landed separately - are known to a handful of enthusiasts, some of whom have placed memorials and crosses marking the sites where Walker and Cross were killed.

The F-104 sites are about a quarter mile apart and about two miles from the XB-70 site, Merlin said.

[Young Werther]

The Valkyrie was one of those high tech wonders that bankrupted the Soviet Union. It was capable of Mac 3+ and in 1966 would have dashed by all Soviet Air Defense systems. The high powered radars and long range missiles would be countered by the foloowon F-111B and the Soviets, thanks to Reagan and the resurrected B-1, would be outspent and outdone.

Crossfield had the "Right Stuff" and it's too bad he didn't get a shot at Apollo! It took Rutan to beat his X-15 records with SpaceShipOne!!!

[Young Werther]

Oops, Walker not Crossfield!