Posted on 03/21/2010 9:11:20 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
When Robert White shot through the sky in a rocket-powered X-15 airplane nearly 50 years ago, he earned a place in the development of America's space program that those in the field still talk about.
First to break Mach 4 — four times the speed of sound. First to break Mach 5. First to break Mach 6 —more than 4,000 miles per hour. All in a few short months in 1961.
Then in 1962 the young test pilot with Hollywood good looks nosed his airplane 59 miles above the earth to be the first to take a winged craft into space.
"He is an icon," said Jim Young, chief historian at Edwards Air Force Base in California. "He accomplished some things that were major milestones in the history of flight."
White, 85, of Orlando, who retired from the Air Force in 1981 as a major general, died in his sleep Wednesday after several months of declining health. Greg White, his son, remarked that it was ironic that a man who lived his life on the edge of danger for decades died so peacefully.
Father and son appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1962 under the title "What a Ride!" after White's landmark journey into space. It was the apex of his career as a test pilot, the nation was enthralled, and kids across America were busy gluing together gray plastic models of his plane.
While first American astronauts Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom and John Glenn all had been nose-coned into space at the time, White's feat was a forerunner of the space shuttle program to follow years later. It began to demonstrate that a winged craft could travel in space.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Wow, sounds like an incredible guy!
Thanks for this post: two icons of my childhood have died within a few days of one another: one who portayed an American hero, and one who was one.
Go with God, Robert White
Robert White was a hero of mine. Hearing of the loss of a real American Hero at a time like this only deepens the remorse. Both for the loss of
General White and the America that he stood for.
God Speed General!
Every now and then, you read an obituary that’s not an occasion for sadness, but for rejoicing, because you can say “this man truly lived a full life.”
America’s leadership in aviation is among our nation’s proudest achievements. Aviation is one of the proudest callings a man can pursue, the very essence of a full life. Go with God, Maj. Gen. White.
Every now and then, you read an obituary that’s not an occasion for sadness, but for rejoicing, because you can say “this man truly lived a full life.”
America’s leadership in aviation is among our nation’s proudest achievements. Aviation is one of the proudest callings a man can pursue, the very essence of a full life. Go with God, Maj. Gen. White.
RIP.
Rest In Peace, brave pioneer
High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I have climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and
Soared and swung.
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along,
And flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
God Speed General White. :^)
I remember reading about him in our “Weekly Reader”, back when I was in grammar school. I actually thought the X-15 would eventually fly to the moon and back. Of course no one was saying that it was just my misinterpretation.
Good Times indeed. Goofus always in trouble.
Rest in Peace, General White
You were a childhood hero and the X-15 was an amazing aircraft.
Wasn’t that “Highlights”
Goofus and Gallant
Always a must read at the dentists office.
I stand corrected. Ha! :^)
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