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Author
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Topic: Photo of the week 821 (July 18, 2020)
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heng44
Member Posts: 3812
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 07-17-2020 12:02 PM
   
 A 1962 group photo of the X-20 pilots. Left to right: Captain Albert Crews, Captain William Knight, NASA's Milton Thompson, Major James Wood (wearing the prototype X-20 spacesuit), Major Russell Rogers and Major Henry Gordon. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3984
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 07-17-2020 01:16 PM
Have not seen that early X-20 pilot group shot beforehand and I noticed the extra large helmet of the prototype suit worn by Woods.
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DG27
Member Posts: 275
From: USA
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted 07-18-2020 01:11 AM
That's a great photo which I also had not seen before. Thanks for sharing. |
Philip
Member Posts: 6322
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 07-25-2020 09:57 AM
Interesting group photo of the "Dynamic Soarer" spaceplane pilots! |
taneal1
Member Posts: 275
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 07-10-2025 07:51 AM
Major James Wood was the Chief Pilot on the X-20 Project, and thus would have flown the first mission. That's the way the USAF operated. Not bad for a guy who was rejected as a Mercury astronaut...
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onesmallstep
Member Posts: 1524
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007
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posted 07-10-2025 08:21 AM
Future Col. Al Crews (who recently passed away) would go on to be selected for the MOL (Manned Orbiting Lab) program but that, too, was cancelled. Unlike seven of his former MOL astronaut colleagues who transferred to NASA, he was too old for the astronaut corps, so he instead became a research pilot flying planes like the Super Guppy transport and the WB-57F high-altitude aircraft. Both Knight and Thompson would go on to fly the X-15 hypersonic rocket plane.Another X-15 pilot, Neil Armstrong, was also shortlisted as an X-20 'engineer-pilot' and there is film of him testing the Dyna-Soar cockpit with the pressure suit on; he was already a NASA astronaut by the time that photo was taken, having been chosen with the second 'New Nine' astronaut group. |
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