Wow, three posts in less than two weeks that mention NASA test pilot Bill Dana — I didn’t see that coming. (The others were yesterday and October 15th.)
As you probably guessed, Mr. Dana piloted the last X-15 flight — number 199 — forty years ago today. He was dropped from the wing of the same B-52 that, years later, would drop the Pegasus launch vehicle during its first flights. When we were on the Pegasus Flight Readiness Review Panel in the late 1980s, I never thought I’d be blogging about him later … but then again, none of us knew what a blog was because they hadn’t been invented yet.
But here’s to you, Mr. Dana, and all those like you who have “danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.” May we follow, ever upward.
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