Alvin White

XB-70 in supersonic flight

A split second after the collision, the tail of the Valkyrie is torn off, the F-104 explodes

XB-70 in the crash shortly before the impact

Rescue capsule of the XB-70 during a test

Alvin Swauger "Al" White (born December 9, 1918 in Berkeley , California , USA ; † April 29, 2006 in Tucson , Arizona ) was an American test pilot .

Youth and wartime

White was the son of Harold H. White Jr. and Ruth Winkelman. In 1936 he enrolled at the University of California at Davis to study mechanical engineering . Two years later he moved to the University of Berkeley , his birthplace. Here he began his piloting career in a program for civilians to learn to fly. In 1940 he received his pilot's license and was then trained as a military pilot at Williams Field . During World War II he flew in fighter escorts for US bomber units from D-Day to the German surrender .

Career as a test pilot

After the war he successfully completed his studies and became a test pilot for the US Air Force and North American Aviation . Here he undertook a large number of test flights in various machines, including the F-86 Saber , the F-100 Super Saber and the YF-107 . He was assigned to the test project with the X-15 , but did not make any flights with this machine. White was selected for the United States' preparatory space program , Man In Space Soonest , in 1958 , making him one of the first test pilots to work on tests for manned spaceflight. With the founding of NASA and the following Mercury program , the Man-In-Space Soonest program was discontinued and White was reinstated as a test pilot because he had not been considered for the Mercury program and its seven astronauts.

He was then chief test pilot of North American Aviation and at the same time chief pilot for testing the supersonic bomber XB-70 Valkyrie . He undertook the maiden flight as a pilot on September 21, 1964 with co-pilot Joe Cotton on the two test copies (no further aircraft of this type were built because the program was terminated for cost reasons and due to the introduction of new Soviet interceptor missile technology ) . On June 8, 1966, the XB-70 collided with an F-104 Starfighter , which was flown by the famous test pilot Joe Walker , in the air during a formation flight for the company General Electric , which supplied the Valkyrie's engines . The starfighter was drawn in by the suction of the Valkyrie, catapulted over the bomber in a roll and pushed onto the left wing of the bomber. Joe Walker died immediately in his exploding starfighter, the Valkyrie also crashed a short time later with the tail fin torn off. White was the only crew member who was seriously injured with the escape capsule to save himself over Barstow , his copilot Major Carl Cross died when the aircraft hit the desert floor. White's life hung by a thread for the next few days, because the capsule did not hit the desert floor correctly and its seat broke on impact, but at least it saved his life. Half a year later he was again active as a NASA test pilot, but never boarded the Valkyrie's second test aircraft again. With 49 flights as a pilot of the Valkyrie and 18 as a co-pilot, he is the person who has flown this aircraft the most.

Then he was hired in 1966 by the airline Trans World Airlines , from which the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes had bought himself out in the same year . Here he was responsible for development, research and flight operations as a manager until 1969 . In 1969 he started his own company as an expert in flight safety and accident prevention.

White was co-founder and president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, founded in 1955, and has received numerous awards in his field, including the Harmon Trophy from US President Lyndon B. Johnson , the Iven C. Kincheloe Award and the Octave Chanute Award. A pillar on the Aerospace Walk of Honor was also dedicated to him in 1994.

He went as one of the most experienced test pilots in the world with over 8,500 flight hours in more than 125 different types of aircraft in retirement . He then took up aviation as a hobby and was an active pilot for over 60 years.

White left three divorced wives when he died. From his first marriage to Mary L. Kamenzind he had the children Stephen and Cathie, from his second marriage to Virginia M. Lonsdale the daughter Leslie.

Web links

• Alvin White in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
• Spacefacts biography