Joe Walker and “Little Joe”E-3361
Joe Walker in a pressure suit beside the X-1E at the NASA High-Speed Flight Station, Edwards, CA. The dice and “Little Joe” are prominently displayed under the cockpit area. (Little Joe is a dice players’ slang term for two deuces.)
Walker is shown wearing an early Air Force partial pressure suit. This protected the pilot if cockpit pressure was lost above 50,000 feet. Similar suits were used in such aircraft as B-47s, B-52s, F-104s, U-2s, and the X-2 and D-558-II research aircraft. Five years later, Walker reached 354,200 feet in the X-15. Similar artwork – reading “Little Joe the II” – was applied for the record flight. These cases are two of the few times that research aircraft carried such nose art.January 27, 1958NASA Photo / NASA› Pilots Description