Test Pilot Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra was an early Sidewinder test pilot when he was stationed at NOTS between 1952 to 1954. During one flight, Schirra fired the Sidewinder missile and the missile "doubled back" and started to chase his jet. Schirra, through skillful flying, avoided the Sidewinder. He later went onto to join NASA Mercury program as one of the first seven astronauts to fly into space.
Read more about this topic: AIM-9 Sidewinder
Famous quotes containing the words test and/or pilot:
“I am willing, for a money consideration, to test this physical strength, this nervous force, and muscular power with which I’ve been gifted, to show that they will bear a certain strain. If I break down, if my brain gives way under want of sleep, my heart ceases to respond to the calls made on my circulatory system, or the surcharged veins of my extremities burst—if, in short, I fall helpless, or it may be, dead on the track, then I lose my money.”
—Ada Anderson (1860–?)
“Whenever the weather licks the pilot instead of him lickin’ the weather, he’s finished. The first time makes the second time easier. And the first thing he knows, he’s in trouble when the weather is perfect.”
—Frank W. Wead (1895?–1947)