Pilot was real 'six million dollar man'

Antelope Valley Press ^ | September 17, 2003

[BenLurkin]

Steve Austin who? Few people know there was a real $6 million man: Bruce Peterson, a NASA Dryden Research pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1960s, was a pioneer in the testing of lifting bodies.

His all-too-real 1967 crash at Edwards was used in the opening credits of the 1970s television show "The Six Million Dollar Man," starring Lee Majors as Austin.

A former Marine Corps pilot, Peterson joined NASA in 1960 as an aeronautical engineer and was a project pilot on the Rogallo paraglider research vehicle, or Parasev, program. Parasev evaluated the use of an inflatable, flexible wing for the recovery of manned space vehicles.

Peterson was the first NASA pilot to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, in the class of 62-C.

In 1963 he flew the M2-F1 lifting body, his first of 47 lifting body flights. He flew the M2-F1 42 times and made the first flight of the HL-10 on Dec. 22, 1966.

Peterson's lifting body research concluded with a landing accident during his fourth flight in the M2-F2 on May 10, 1967, the crash footage of which was used to open the TV show. Peterson had flown more than 6,000 hours in nearly 70 different aircraft before the crash.

He continued at NASA Dryden as research project engineer on the digital fly-by-wire program, and later assumed responsibility for safety and quality assurance for Dryden until retiring from NASA in 1981.

From 1982 until 1994 Peterson worked in Northrop's B-2 division at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale and Edwards, becoming manager of system safety and human factors.

Peterson is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and 2002 recipient of the Tony LeVier Flight Safety Award. He was honored by NASA with an exceptional leadership award for his work on space shuttle STS-1.

He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, earning a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering at the latter.

Born in Jamestown, N.D., in 1933, Peterson lives in Lancaster. He has two children, David Peterson and Patricia Smith.

Having had an opportunity to fly many aircraft throughout his career, Peterson has a little advice for prospective test pilots: "Know your aircraft and figure out what you're going to do if things don't go as planned."

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Saturday, Lancaster will induct its next five honorees into the Aerospace Walk of Honor during a daylong event, which includes an aviation street fair along Lancaster Boulevard. This week, the Valley Press will feature the profiles of each of this year's five honorees, which brings the number of inductees to 70.

The Aerospace Walk of Honor induction ceremony is at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Boeing Plaza on the corner of Lancaster Boulevard and Sierra Highway.

The street fair will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with an F-117 flyover at 12:15 p.m.

[Atlas Sneezed]

But does he make twangy noises when he jumps high, and does his eye make high pitched beeping noises when he looks hard at a distant object?

[Atlas Sneezed]

But does he make twangy noises when he jumps high, and does his eye make high pitched beeping noises when he looks hard at a distant object?