PUBLISHED 10-2-2006

Most residents of Kern County  recall with pride the suborbital flight of Burt Rutan’s privately funded SpaceShipOne from Mojave Airport two years ago.
 
But only aerospace fans probably remember that 50 years ago, not far from where Rutan’s venture took place, two pioneering suborbital flights also took wing.
 
Without them, neither Rutan’s nor NASA’s manned space flights could have occurred.

In September 1956 the then highest and fastest flights were made in  the Bell X-2 aircraft.

The rocket-powered aircraft was designed to test the effects of heat, stability and controls at high speed — almost three times the speed of sound — and altitude, 126,200 feet.

On Sept. 7, 1956, Capt. Iven  C. Kinchloe flew the X2 from Edwards Air Force Base’s High Speed Flight Station, now NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Station.

Then, on Sept. 27, 1956, Capt. Mel Apt flew the plane faster than three times the speed of sound, but lost control and was killed.

There’s an old saying in aviation that safety is written in blood. But often, progress also comes from tragedy, as it did in Apt’s case.

Another lesson of the obscure anniversary is that as famous as the book “The Right Stuff” made the test pilot community and some of its high-profile characters, the larger point is that day in and day out, progress in aviation takes place almost all the time in incremental and sometimes obscure steps.

And whether the triumphs take place at the civilian flight test center at Mojave Airport or the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Kern County can be proud to host such  achievements.