Posted on 05/01/2003 11:43:44 AM PDT by BenLurkin
LANCASTER - He has flown 240 different kinds of aircraft, logging 16,700 hours of flight time while setting records and performing test piloting feats that are the "right stuff" of aviation history.
Contrary to the popular image of high-flying test pilots, however, the one thing that everyone who has met Fitzhugh "Fitz" Fulton notes is his courtly "Southern gentleman" manner.
Despite his many noteworthy accomplishments and awards, Fulton remains "so humble," said Paula Smith, executive director of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. "He always seems surprised when someone honors him."
Fulton's already long list of awards was lengthened recently when he was honored by Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine with its Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement.
"If it's anybody that's had lifetime achievement in aerospace, Fitz is it," said Roy Martin, president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a Northrop Grumman Corp. test pilot.
Fulton was part of the "Golden Age of Flight Test," Martin said, participating in such programs as the XB-70 supersonic bomber, the X-15 and the lifting body programs.
"All of these programs were tremendous events in advancing what we do in aerospace," Martin said. "Fitz has been right in the middle of it all these years."
Fulton was presented the award April 8 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. He was chosen "because his lifetime accomplishments as a test pilot for the Air Force, NASA and Scaled Composites were considered exemplary and worthy of note by a wide audience," said William B. Scott, the magazine's Rocky Mountain bureau chief.
The ceremony was in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the museum, beneath such noteworthy aircraft as the Wright Flyer and X-15 rocket plane.
"It is certainly a very special award," Fulton said in his typically understated manner. "It was something I definitely was not expecting."
"I know some of my friends must have put my name in," he added.
Many of those friends come from his more than 45 years as a pilot and test pilot. After joining the Air Force in 1943, the Georgia native flew 225 missions in the Berlin Airlift and 55 combat sorties over Korea, before going on to the Air Force Test Pilot School, graduating in 1952.
Former NASA test pilot Bill Dana - an aviation legend in his own right - worked with Fulton on numerous projects over the years, including the X-15 and lifting body programs.
As pilot of the B-52 launch aircraft for the X-15, Fulton "always took great pride" in being at precisely the right altitude and speed to launch the rocket plane, Dana said.
Dana recounts one flight when he was flying a chase airplane behind the B-52. With about a minute to go before launch, one of the bomber's engines began to overheat and spew molten metal out the back end.
When told of the problem, Fulton responded that he would shut down the engine once the X-15 was launched.
"We kept grinding toward that (launch point) with red-hot metal shooting out the engine," Dana said.
The X-15 launched successfully, Fulton shut down the damaged engine and they all landed safely, Dana said.
"He has launched probably every launchable airplane the U.S. has flown," Dana said. Besides the X-15 and lifting bodies, the list includes rocket planes such as the X-1 and X-2, unmanned vehicles and even prototypes of the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters.
Following 23 years of Air Force service, Fulton retired as a lieutenant colonel and joined NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center as a research pilot in 1966.
He was project pilot on all early tests of the 747 shuttle carrier aircraft used in landing tests of the prototype shuttle Enterprise in 1977.
Former astronaut and NASA research pilot Gordon Fullerton worked with Fulton during these tests, piloting the orbiter with Fred Haise while "Fitz was driving the 747," he said.
"He's a real good friend now," said Fullerton, whose relationship with Fulton includes a monthly supper club with their wives.
In some ways, Fullerton has followed in Fulton's footsteps. He now holds Fulton's old post as head of the pilots' office at Dryden and pilots the B-52 and the shuttle carrier aircraft.
"He's the best as an aviator and test pilot and a true friend," he said. "We've flown everything from fighters to 747s together."
"Fitz was a great leader," retired NASA research pilot Tom McMurtry said. "His leadership was just exceptional."
McMurtry worked with Fulton in the cockpit of the 747 during the space shuttle tests, along with two flight test engineers.
"It took someone like Fitz to be the leader to make it as successful as it was," he said.
As an example, he cites the first flight of the 747 with the orbiter mounted on top. Before taxiing for take-off, Fulton turned and shook hands with the rest of the crew.
"I though that was a nice gesture," McMurtry said. "I think he just wanted to do that as a friend."
"I looked to him as a mentor," McMurtry said. "I learned so much from him."
Fulton was always willing to explain something and to share the pilot duties.
"I have never met anyone that I have enjoyed being around as much as Fitz Fulton," he said. "His skills were just so unique, it was awesome to fly with him."
Gary Krier met Fulton when he first arrived at Dryden in 1967 as a research pilot without much background in flight testing.
"Fitz took me under his wing," he said. "I've been grateful to him ever since."
Although the two never worked together on a specific program, "he would take time to teach," said Krier, now director of flight operations at Dryden. "He was a superb teacher."
While Fulton is internationally known for his accomplishments, "he doesn't wear his status on his sleeve," Krier said. "He is so outstanding in so many categories, no one stands out more than the others."
As an Air Force test pilot, Fulton set an international altitude record of 85,360 feet in the B-58 supersonic bomber, a record which still stands. He received the 1962 Harmon International Aviation Trophy for his work on the program.
As both an Air Force and NASA research pilot, he flew the XB-70 prototype supersonic bomber, reaching speeds in excess of Mach 3. With NASA, his supersonic work continued as a project pilot on the YF-12A and YF-12C research programs, Mach 3-plus aircraft from the same Blackbird family as the SR-71.
Following his retirement from NASA, Fulton became flight operations director and chief research pilot for Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC in Mojave. While there, he was responsible for developmental test flights of the Triumph business jet before retiring again in 1989. "I've been very fortunate in getting some very good programs," Fulton said.
He lists the B-58 Hustler bomber as his favorite, "but the XB-70, Blackbirds and 747 all rank up there."
In addition to his latest honor, Fulton has been inducted in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and was awarded four Air Force Distinguished Flying Crosses, five air medals, the SETP's Kincheloe Trophy and two NASA Distinguished Service Medals. He also was named the Air Force Test Pilot School's first "Distinguished Alumnus," and is recognized on Lancaster's Aerospace Walk of Honor.
There were photos of him with two people on his office wall. One was of him in his younger days, working on the broken aircraft of a tall lanky mail pilot named Charles Lindbergh. The other was of him with Fitz Fulton in front of the Braniff hanger where *Fat Albert,* the just-delivered bright Braniff orange first 747 to be put into commercial passenger service, sometimes known as *the great pumpkin* was parked. I imagine they took it up for a spin shortly afterward.
Pity there wasn't one of the three of them together.
-archy-/- 
I cannot imagine spinning a 74 under any conditions. :-)
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