On this day, we celebrate the accomplishments of General Robert White, the first person to fly a rocketplane to space.
General White had a storied military aviation career, including 52 combat missions over Europe and 70 combat missions in Vietnam. However, it is his career as a test pilot that earned him a place among the aviation elite.
General White attended the U.S. Air Force’s Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, becoming a test pilot and eventually being named the primary pilot for the X-15 rocketplane program.
While flying the X-15, General White became the first human to fly an aircraft faster than Mach 4. He eventually reached a speed of 4,093 mph (6,590 km/h)–six times the speed of sound.
On July 17, 1962, General White flew the X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet (59 miles, 96 km), earning astronaut wings in the process.
General White died at age 85 on March 17, 2010, yet his legendary test pilot career lives on in the advances that engineers and scientists are making today in supersonic and hypersonic aircraft.
Learn more about General Robert White here.