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[i]X-2 rocket plane is released by Boeing EB-50D Superfortress on its test flight over Edwards Air Force Base, California.[/i] Credit: USAF [b]Space Cover #401: Captain Iven Kincheloe, USAF Test Pilot[/b] As a newcomer assigned to the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, Captain Iven Kincheloe could not fly the research aircraft he desired right away. Instead the new test pilot flew "chase" for the more experienced men in the experimental planes. The chase pilot flew alongside the test aircraft and watched for any external trouble which the pilot could not see. Kincheloe flew as many chase flights as he could get and finally was assigned to his first test project — checking the gunnery defects in a new supersonic fighter, the F-100. He did the job so well that he was given better assignments flying initial Air Force evaluation tests on such brand new jet fighters as the McDonnell F-101, Convair F-102, Lockheed F-104, and Republic F-105. These were the Phase II tests in which Air Force pilots put the new plane through its paces after a few demonstrations by the manufacturer. One day, Kincheloe saw a remarkable new research plane — the Bell X-2. The rocket-powered plane was designed to investigate performance at speeds and altitudes never before achieved by man, and to explore the aerodynamic heating problems encountered at these speeds and altitudes. To do this task, the X-2 was built with sturdy steel wings and tail, and a K-Monel metal fuselage. Its rocket engine burned a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol, and the craft had to be launched by dropping it from a B-50 bomber in flight. The first X-2 had exploded over Lake Ontario, killing Bell's test pilot, Skip Ziegler. This was the second X-2 which now rested, quiet and docile, in the hanger at Edwards. Iven Kincheloe knew he had to fly it. Pete Everest was the test pilot on the X-2 project, and he chose Kincheloe to fly chase for him. On its first flight, the X-2 was slightly damaged in landing, and the program was delayed. Kincheloe returned to more routine flying and was selected as project officer for the new F-100C which kept him busy into the spring of 1956. But he still had his heart set on flying the X-2. In April the X-2 program went into high gear when Pete Everest flew the rocket plane to sixty thousand feet at one thousand two hundred miles per hour. Then Everest received word that he might be transferred and recommended Kincheloe and another test pilot, Mel Apt, as his alternates. Meanwhile, he would continue to fly the X-2 while breaking in the new men. On May 22 Everest flew the X-2 at 1,650 miles per hour and earned the title of "the fastest man alive." Kincheloe made his first checkout flight in the X-2 on May 25, 1956. He was five inches taller than Everest and in his pressure suit and parachute, he had no room to spare in the tiny cockpit. "I just won't rattle around as much," he stated. The flight itself was not very spectacular. Its purpose was to give Kincheloe the feel of the airplane, not to set records. On July 23, 1956, Everest made his last flight in the X-2 and reached one thousand nine hundred miles per hour, almost three times the speed of sound. Then he left on another assignment, and at last the X-2 belonged to test pilot Iven Kincheloe. His first goal was to reach an altitude of 100,000 feet or better, but first he had to feel out the plane's reactions at a slightly lower altitude. On August 3, 1956 Kincheloe climbed to an altitude of 87,750 feet at an air speed of one thousand seven hundred miles per hour with no control problems. The stage had now been set for Kincheloe's flight into the fringe of space. The cover above records a test flight in the Bell X-2 rocket plane by USAF test pilot Iven Kincheloe, made August 8, 1956, possibly for test flight 13. The cover was mailed by correspondent Harry Gordon to test pilot Kincheloe requesting that his flight cover be flown on an X-2 test flight by the pilot. His request was forwarded to Kincheloe by the Edwards AFB Commanding Officer back to Gordon stating that it might be possible. As requested, Kincheloe has signed the cover for his X-2 test flight and noted it as X-2 flight 13. X-2 test flight cover 16 flown by Iven Kincheloe, September 7, 1956, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The flight's altitude set an unofficial record of 126,000 feet, the highest altitude to date for the Bell X-2 rocket plane and a precursor of speed and altitude that were achieveable. Kincheloe has signed his flight cover and cited this X-2 test flight as flight 16 before mailing it back to Harry Gordon. Letter from Air Force Flight Test Center Commanding Officer, BGEN J.S. Holtoner, to correspondent Harry Gordon, concerning Gordon's request for Iven Kincheloe to carry his covers on X-2 test flights he is flying at Flight Test Operations at Edwards Air Force Base, California. BGEN Holtoner responds, "Whether or not he flies them is up to him." Amazingly, he does fly them, signs them, and mails them back to Gordon. Slated to become the first test pilot to fly the X-15 rocket plane, and to achieve spaceflight, fate would tragically intervene. Captain Iven Kincheloe would be killed in a crash of his U.S. Air Force F-104 Starfighter on July 26, 1958, over Edwards Air Force Base. It was not to be.
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