posted 12-05-2022 02:48 PM               

Colonel Chilstrom was a combat veteran of WWII flying 80 missions in the North African campaign during 1943. Flying with the 27th Fighter Bomber Group, Colonel Chilstrom flew the A-36 on dive bomb and strafing missions and won the DFC and Eight Air Medals.

After rotating back to the USA, Chilstrom was assigned to Wright Field, Dayton Ohio as a test pilot graduating from the very first TPS class in 1944 (A). Fellow class members included Dick Bong, Bob Cardenas, Tony LeVier and Bob Rahn. Chilstrom flew flight test evaluations of the captured ME-109, FW-190 and ME-262.

On February 17, 1945, Colonel Chilstrom was the first US pilot to have a major accident in the Bell P-59 (America's first jet aircraft) when he lost power on take-off. In 1946, Chilstrom participated in the first jet air race at the National Air Races in Cleveland, OH. The winner of that race was Captain Gustav E. Lundquist.

In September 1946, Chilstrom became chief pilot of the Fighter Test Division at Wright Field and under his charge were some of the most famous test pilots in US history including, Pete Everest, Dick Johnson, Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover. In 1948 Chilstrom flew the Phase II tests of the XP-86 program at Muroc AFB, CA. Chilstrom was promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1958 and that year was assigned as the Project Manager of the North American XF-108 Rapier at Wright Field. The XF-108 was to have been a Mach 3 long range interceptor but this program got sadly cancelled to save the sister XB-70 program due to a budget funding shortfall.

Colonel Chilstrom retired from the USAF in 1964 after 26 years service and after 22 years of working for civilian defence contractors retired in 1986 to Palm Beach, Florida.