Astronaut, X-15 test pilot and space shuttle pilot Joe Engle died at his home in Houston, Texas. He is 91 years old. Engle died peacefully surrounded by his family, according to a NASA press release. Joe Engle is the latest pilot to die among the 12 men who flew the X-15 rocket-powered hypersonic control plane.
Joe Engle’s career in aviation and space exploration has been notable in part because it has spanned the transition from atmospheric flight to space flight, adding participation in the Apollo lunar missions and flying atmospheric test aircraft in space and landing on Earth aboard of the X-15, a precursor. to the space shuttle operational program. Engle helped expand reusable spacecraft and was actively involved in their operational deployment.
Born August 26, 1932, Engle, a native of Chapman, Kansas. Growing up from humble, classical beginnings, he joined the Boy Scouts and then attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering.
Joe Engle learned to fly from a colleague named Henry Dittmer while racing Cessna Aircraft. Engle began his formal education as a pilot in the United States Air Force in 1957 and graduated the following year. His first operational assignment in the Air Force was with the 474th Fighter Squadron, a unit that had transitioned from the first subsonic F-86 Saber to the F-100 Super Sabre, the Air Force’s first operational supersonic fighter. He later flew with the 309th Fighter Squadron, a unit that operated the subsonic straight-wing F-84E Thunderjet, one of the first multi-role fighter aircraft used in the close air aid project during the Korean conflict.
Engle went to test pilot school through the legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager. After graduating from the Air Force Test Pilot School in 1961, Engle continued his complex pilot education and became a member of the first aircrew to begin atmospheric transition education to spaceflight when he joined. the third class of the Aerospace Research Flight School.
Engle entered the North American X-15 flight program in 1963.
As a member of the noted X-15 pilot fraternity that broke altitude and speed records for manned flight with a total of 199 flights between 1959 and 1968, Engle flew the January 29, 1965, Engle flew the 15.
After his X-15 flight verification experience, Joe Engle was chosen for astronaut training at NASA in 1966. He was chosen as a team on the Apollo 10 project and served as a backup pilot for the Apollo 17 lunar module. Because lunar exploration projects had a strong emphasis on learning the geology of the Moon, Engle was not chosen as the lunar module’s operational pilot, but was replaced by an astronaut with university studies in geology.
True to his origins as an atmospheric test pilot, Engle began space shuttle technical flight checks and landing flight checks from June to October 1977. These remarkable flights originated in the back of an airplane Boeing 747 launch vehicle carrying the space shuttle. . to its separation altitude of 25,000 feet for landing checks. Engle then became the exchange commander for the first orbital test flight of the space shuttle Columbia. On the STS-2 space shuttle project, Engle served as project commander. He also commanded the space shuttle flight STS-51-I. Engle ended his tenure as command pilot at NASA after accumulating 225 hours of spaceflight between the X-15 and Space Shuttle programs.
In a NASA statement regarding the passing of Joe Engle, Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, said: “As we mourn the immense loss of Joe, we are grateful for his notable contributions to the advancement of human spaceflight. Joe’s achievements and legacy of perseverance will continue to motivate and impact generations of explorers for years to come.
In total, Engle is said to have flown more than 180 more aircraft, logging more than 14,000 flight hours, including space flights.
In addition to being inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in 1992, Engle has garnered an impressive amount of accolades for his career in aviation and spaceflight. These include the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the U. S. Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, and the U. S. Air Force Distinguished Service Medal. The U. S. Air Force Distinguished Flight Cross is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster. He has been awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Space Flight Medal, and has won the Harmon International Aviation Trophy, the Collier Trophy, the Goddard Space Trophy, the General Thomas D White Space Trophy, and the Ivan Kinchelow Experimental Test Pilot Trophy.
Among the many triyets of Joe Engle’s career is an exhibition gallery at the Experimental Aviation Association Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, committed to his career. Artifacts from the gallery of Engle’s private collection and archives were compiled and displayed in a timeline the size of a room in his life. In many ways, this is much more than a timeline of a man’s career in aviation and spaceflight, but also a timeline of humanity’s transition from atmospheric flight to spaceflight and then to lunar exploration. Engle’s life is a living testimony to the greatest of humanity. Achievements.
On the wall of the exhibition in Oshkosh, Engle’s remarkable life is immortalized through his quote: “There’s nothing I need to do yet to steal, I admit I’m very, very lucky. “
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