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X-15 Pilot Joe Walker

X-15 Pilot Joe Walker
NASA research pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 rocket plane to an altitude of 271,000 feet, or 51 miles high, becoming the first civilian test pilot to exceed 50 miles altitude.

NASA research pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 rocket plane to an altitude of 271,000 feet, or 51 miles high, becoming the first civilian test pilot to exceed 50 miles altitude. The flight was a precursor to his record altitude flights in July and August of the same year, the latter of which rocketed the X-15 to an unofficial world altitude record of 354,200 feet or 67 miles, a record that stood for more than 40 years until broken by Scaled Composites’ Space Ship One in 2004.
Although both flights met the Air Force 50-mile threshold as well as the international standard of 62 miles high for awarding astronaut wings, it was against NASA policy at the time to award astronaut wings to test pilots. Thus, Walker and two other NASA X-15 pilots who soared well above 50 miles, Jack McKay and Bill Dana, did not receive astronaut wings until they were so honored, Walker and McKay posthumously, at a ceremony at NASA Dryden in August 2005.NASA Photo
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