Joe Walker with the Number 2 North American Aviation X-15A, 56-6671, on Rogers Dry Lake. (NASA)Joseph A. Walker, NASA Chief Research Test Pilot
19 July 1963: Between 1960 and 1963, NASA Chief Research Test Pilot Joseph Albert Walker made 25 flights in the North American Aviation X-15A hypersonic research rocketplanes. His 24th flight was the 21st for the Number 3 X-15, 56-6672, and the 90th of the X-15 program.
At 10:20:05.0 a.m., Walker and the X-15 were airdropped from the Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress, 53-008, Balls 8, over Smith Ranch Dry Lake, Nevada. Walker fired the Reaction Motors XLR99-RM-1 rocket engine and over the next 84.6 seconds the engine’s 60,000 pounds of thrust drove the X-15 upward. The engine’s thrust on this flight was higher than expected, shutdown was 1.6 seconds late, and Walker’s climb angle was 1½° too high, so the X-15 overshot the predicted maximum altitude and its ballistic arc peaked at 347,800 feet (106,010 meters, 65.8 miles). The maximum speed was Mach 5.50 (3,714 miles per hour, 5,977 kilometers per hour).
Walker glided to a touch down at Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base California, after flying 311 miles in 11 minutes, 24.1 seconds of flight. On this flight, Joe Walker became the first American civilian to fly into Space.
North American Aviation X-15A 56-6672 on Rogers Dry Lake after a flight. (NASA)
Aérospatiale SA 3210 Super Frelon F-ZWWE with Roland Coffignot, Jean Boulet and Joseph Turchini. (Aérospatiale)
FAI Record File Num #9963
Status: ratified – superseded since approved
Region: World
Class: E (Rotorcraft)
Sub-Class: E-1 (Helicopters)
Category: General
Group: 2 : turbine
Type of record: Speed over a 3 km course
Performance: 341.23 km/h
Date: 1963-07-19
Course/Location: Istres (France)
Claimant Jean Boulet (FRA)
Crew Roland COFIGNOT
Rotorcraft: Aérospatiale SA 3210 “Super Frelon”
Engines: 3 Turbomeca Turmo
Northrop F-89J Scorpion 53-2547 fires a live MB-1 rocket during Operation Plumbbob John, 1400 GMT, 19 July 1957. (U.S. Air Force)
During 1957, a series of 29 nuclear weapons tests were carried out at the United States’ Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, under Project Plumbbob. Shot John was the first and only firing of a live, nuclear-armed, air-to-air anti-aircraft missile.
On Friday morning, 19 July 1957, a United States Air Force Northrop F-89J Scorpion interceptor, serial number 53-2547, flown by Captain Eric W. Hutchison, Pilot, and Captain Alfred C. Barbee, Radar Intercept Officer, launched a Genie MB-1 unguided rocket at an altitude of 18,500 feet (5,640 meters) over NTS Area 10.
(DoE)
The rocket accelerated to Mach 3 and traveled 2.6 miles (4,250 meters) in 4.5 seconds when, at 07:00:04.6 a.m., Pacific Daylight Savings Time (14:00 UTC), its W-25 warhead was detonated by a signal from a ground station. The resulting explosive yield was 1.7 kilotons.
Plumbbob John fireball as seen from Indian Springs Air Base, 30 miles away from the detonation. The aircraft in the foreground is a Northrop F-89J Scorpion, a sister-ship of the launch aircraft. (U.S. Air Force)
Interestingly, five U.S. Air Force officers and a photographer were standing directly under the air burst. This was an attempt by the Air Force to assuage public fears about the use of nuclear-armed anti-aircraft missiles over populated areas.
Five Air Force officers stand at ground zero of an atomic bomb test at a Nevada test site on July 19, 1957.
The Northrop Corporation F-89J Scorpion was a two-place, twin-engine, sub-sonic all-weather interceptor. It was flown by a pilot and radar intercept officer in a tandem cockpit. It had a straight wing at mid-fuselage and a “T” tail horizontal stabilizer. Earlier variants of the Scorpion were armed with machine guns and rockets, but the F-89J carried only rockets and guided missiles.
The fireball of the W-25 warhead, photographed from approximately 5 miles. (Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Field Office)
F-89J 53-2547 was built as an F-89D-60-NO Scorpion, and was one of 350 D-models which were upgraded to the F-89J standard. It was a missile-armed all-weather interceptor with a two man crew assigned to the Air Defense Command.
The Northrop F-89J Scorpion was 53 feet, 8.4 inches long (16.368 meters) with a wingspan of 59 feet, 9.6 inches (18.227 meters) and overall height of 17 feet, 6 inches (5.334 meters). The leading edge of the interceptor’s wings were swept aft 5° 8′. The angle of incidence was 1° 30′, with no twist, and 1° 0′ dihedral. The total wing area was 606 square feet (56.30 square meters).
The F-89J had an empty weight of 26,883 pounds (12,194 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 47,719 pounds (21,645 kilograms).
The F-89J Scorpion was powered by two General Electric-designed, Allison Engine Company-built, J35-A-35 engines. The J35 was a single-spool, axial-flow turbojet engine with an 11-stage compressor section and single-stage turbine. The J35-A-33 had a Normal (continuous) power rating of 4,855 pounds of thrust (21.596 kilonewtons) at 7,400 r.p.m. The Military Power rating was 5,440 pounds (24.198 kilonewtons) at 8,000 r.p.m. (30 minute limit), and it could produce a maximum 7,200 pounds of thrust (32.027 kilonewtons) at 8,000 r.p.m., with afterburner (5 minute limit). The engine was 16 feet, 3.5 inches (4.966 meters) long, 3 feet, 1.0 inches (0.940 meters) in diameter and weighed 2,830 pounds (1,284 kilograms).
Cutaway illustration of J35 turbojet engine. (General Electric)
The F-89J had a cruise speed of 402 knots (463 miles per hour/745 kilometers per hour) and a maximum speed of 528 knots (608 miles per hour/978 kilometers per hour) at 11,100 feet (3,383 meters). The service ceiling was 43,900 feet (13,381 meters). The interceptor’s combat radius was 435 nautical miles (501 statute miles/806 kilometers), and the maximum ferry range was 1,498 nautical miles (1,724 statute miles/2774 kilometers).
The F-89J could be armed with two MB-1 Genie rockets and four Hughes GAR-2A (AIM-4C) Falcon infrared-seeking air-to-air missiles; or two MB-1 Genies and 104 2.75-inch Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets (FFAR).
F-89s served with the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard from 1948 until 1969. Northrop F-89J Scorpion 53-2547 was transferred to the Montana Air National Guard in 1960. It is on display at the Air National Guard Base, Great Falls, Montana.
A Douglas MB-1 Genie nuclear-armed air-to-air rocket is loaded aboard the F-89 Scorpion in preparation for Operation Plumbbob John. (U.S. Air Force)
The Douglas Aircraft Company, Missiles and Space Systems Division MB-1 Genie (AIR-2 after June 1963) was an unguided, nuclear-armed, air-to-air anti-aircraft rocket. Its solid-fuel Thiokol SR49-TC-1 engine produced 36,500 pounds of thrust (162.360 kilonewtons) and gave the Genie a maximum speed of Mach 3.3. Its range was 6 miles (9.6 kilometers). The rocket weighed 822 pounds (373 kilograms) with its W-25 warhead, and was 9 feet, 8 inches (2.946 meters) in length, with a maximum diameter of 1 foot, 5.5 inches (0.445 meters). The fins spanned 3 feet, 4 inches (1.118 meters). In production from 1957 to 1962, 3,150 missiles were produced. The Genie was in service from 1957 to 1988.
Douglas MB-1 (ATR-2A) Genie air-to-air rocket. (Nuclear Weapons Archive)
The W-25 was a Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory-designed anti-aircraft warhead. It was a fission device, using implosion of both uranium and plutonium. The warhead’s diameter was 17.35 inches, and it was 26.6 inches long. The warhead weighed 221 pounds (100 kilograms). The W-25 was produced from May 1957 to May 1960. All had been retired by December 1984.
Detonation was by time delay fuse. Lethal radius of the warhead was estimated to be approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters).
Plumbbob John. The Nevada State Journal described “a weird spray trailing earthward.”
Екатерина Васильевна Буданова (Ekaterina Vasilievna Budanova)
19 July 1943: The Soviet fighter ace, Lieutenant Екатерина Васильевна Буданова (Ekaterina Vasilievna Budanova) was killed in action at Novo-Krasnnvka, Lugansk region, Ukraine. She had been escorting a group of Ilyushin Il-2 dive bombers when her Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter was engaged by three Messerschmitt Bf 109s. She shot down one of the enemy fighters and damaged another, but was herself mortally wounded during the engagement. She was able to land her fighter, but died soon after.
Lieutenant Budanova was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Degree.
Yakovlev Yak-1
Ekaterina Vasilievna Budanova was born in the village of Konolyanka, Smolenskaya Oblast, Imperial Russia, 7 December 1916. She was orphaned at an early age. She had an elementary education. Ekaterina Vasilievna travelled to Moscow searching for work. While working in a factory at Fila, she took flying lessons at the local flying club, and qualified as a pilot an an instructor.
From 1934 to 1941, Ekaterina Vasilievna worked as an instructor for the aero club.
Comrade Budanova entered the women’s aviation units of the Soviet Red Army in September 1941. Trained as a fighter pilot in the Yak-1, she was assigned to the 586th Fighter Regiment. From April to September 1942, she was engaged in the defense of Saratov. She was next assigned to the 437th Air Regiment near Stalingrad. In January 1943, she was transferred to the 73rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. It was there that she had her greatest successes. On 23 February 1943, Budanova was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
Lieutenant Budanova flew 266 combat sorties, and is credited with 6 enemy aircraft destroyed, and another 5 shared with other pilots.
In 1988, Budanova’s remains were exhumed and reburied. On 1 October 1993, she was named Hero of the Russian Federation.
(Left to right) Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, Katya Budanova and Mariya Kuznetsova with a Yak-1 fighter. (RIA Novosti)
18 July 1967: For the first time, a U.S. Air Force Sikorsky HH-3E Jolly Green Giant combat search and rescue helicopter refueled in flight from a Lockheed HC-130P Combat King command and control aircraft during an actual rescue mission in Southeast Asia.
A Lockheed HC-130P Combat King refuels a Sikorsky HH-3E Jolly Green Giant, with escorting Douglas A-1E and A-1H Skyraiders, Southeast Asia, 1968. (U.S. Air Force)
