Maj. Gen. Engle with his X-15.
(Courtesy Joe Engle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA key contribution of the X-15 flight research program was to help engineers develop confidence that an unpowered spacecraft could glide to a safe landing on earth.\u00a0Also, the maneuvers used to slow the X-15 were nearly identical to those of the space shuttle from Mach 6 to landing.<\/p>\n
Launched from beneath the wing of a modified B-52, the X-15 was the first piloted aircraft to exceed Mach 4, 5 and 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first flight was a highlight,\u201d\u00a0he commented in a telephone interview from his Houston NASA office. \u201cIt was a relatively benign profile as far as speed and altitude, but benign in the X-15 was several orders of magnitude faster and higher than I’d ever been. Altitude flights were the ones I enjoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll X-15 flights were as exciting and busy as can be,\u201d he said. \u201cThere just wasn’t time to sit and look around much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emgle is currently an engineering consultant and technical advisor on space vehicles and space operations and is serving as technical advisor to NASA\u2019s International Space Station Advisory Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only plane I personally owned was the Piper Cub, but that was just to teach my son to fly,\u201d Engle said.<\/p>\n
At 32, Engle was the youngest test pilot. Now, 50 years later, he\u2019s the only one still alive.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the Park<\/b> \u2014 Centro de Ciencias Reuben H. Fleet<\/b> will host the West Coast premiere of \u201cGenome: Unlocking Life\u2019s Code.\u201d Visitors can explore what the genome is, its scale and structure, and how genomics plays a role in modern life. The exhibition shows how genomics has added to archaeological and fossil evidence, not only increasing knowledge of human origins but also helping to answer questions about recent ancestry … San Diego Auto Museum\u2019s<\/b> Research Director Kenn Colclasure wondered why people wanted to chop up cars \u2014 vintage 1950s \u2014 as an expression of some art. So he\u2019ll parade 12\u00a0 \u201clead sleds\u201d\u00a0onto the floor of the Museum for the next three months. Colclasure is calling it Art on Wheels. \u201cIf I can get a couple more show stoppers, I\u2019m going to crowd them in,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got \u201850 Mercs, dropped way down and painted primer black.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014After an award winning, 38-year sports-writing career with the San Diego Union and authoring three books, Johnny McDonald now considers writing a hobby. You can reach him at johnny23@cox.net<\/a>. <\/i><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Johnny McDonald Taking flight and making history Spanning the skies at 4.71 Mach speeds in the experimental X-15, space shuttle explorations, and piloting a 65-horsepower Piper Cub have all been career contrasts for retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Joe Engle.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Exploring Balboa Park October 2014","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Johnny](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/johnnyMc-bio-photo-web.jpg\")
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