The Best Chase That Ol' Mach Demon Ever Had!
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October 3rd, 1967, Test pilot "Pete" Knight gave that Ol' Mach Demon the best chase it ever had! William John "Pete" Knight set a world absolute aircraft speed record for manned aircraft when he piloted the X-15A-2 to 4,520 miles per hour, or Mach 6.72, almost seven times the speed of sound. A speed record that still stands to this date. Knight also became one of only five pilots to earn their Astronaut Wings by flying an airplane to an altitude over 280,500 feet.
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On a previous X-15 test flight, Pete suffered a total electrical failure and complete onboard systems shut down, that occurred while climbing through 107,000 feet at Mach 4.17 on June 29, 1967.
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Calmly allowing the plane to continue to its apex altitude of 173,000 feet, he pushed the nose over and flew a purely visual approach to a non-eventful landing at Mud Lake, Nevada. For
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After serving as a project test pilot for the F-100 Super Sabre, F-101 Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, T-38 Talon, F-5 Freedom Fighter, X-15 and many more aircraft types for almost ten years at Edwards AFB, Pete departed the mainland for Southeast Asia in 1968, where he then completed a total of 253 combat missions in the F-100 Sabre jet over Vietnam.
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After 32 over years of service, Pete had logged over 6,000 hours in the cockpits of more than 100 different types of aircraft, he retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Colonel in 1982.
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By the time Colonel Knight had hung up his wings, he had been awarded the Legion of Merit with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Medal with ten Oak Leaf Clusters, the Harmon International Trophy, the Octave Chanute Award, and the Air Force Association Citation of Honor. Colonel Knight was also inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1988), the Aerospace Walk of Honor (1990), and the International Space Hall of Fame (1998).
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On May 7, 2004, Colonel
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