Michael Adams (pilot)
Michael James Adams (born May 5, 1930 in Sacramento , California , † November 15, 1967 ) was an American test pilot and one of the pilots of the X-15 .
After leaving school in 1950, Michael Adams joined the U.S. Air Force . He was trained as a pilot in Texas and used as a combat bomber pilot in the Korean War. Adams was later stationed in Louisiana and France .
In 1958 he graduated from Oklahoma University with a degree in aeronautical engineering, after further studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was accepted at the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1962 , where he graduated as the best in his class.
Adams then attended the Aerospace Research Pilot School, which he graduated with honors in December 1963. He was one of four test pilots who worked with NASA to practice moon landings at the Martin Company in Baltimore , Maryland .
1965 Adams was part of the Manned-Orbiting-Laboratory -Programms in the first military astronaut group included, but left in 1966 the program to July 1966 X-15 program to push that jointly carried out by the Air Force and NASA has been. He made his first flight on the X-15, the fastest airplane in the world, on October 6, 1966.
On November 15, 1967, he took off on his seventh test flight of an X-15. The aircraft drifted sideways (not uncommon in the high atmosphere) and thus went into a tailspin after re-entry . Due to the stability of the X-15 and his flying skills, Major Adams was able to intercept the spin. The flight control system was not able to keep the machine stable due to damage. The X-15 got into an uncontrolled flight condition again and broke due to the high pressure forces, caused by the high airspeed in the denser earth atmosphere . Michael Adams was found dead in the rubble, still sitting in his ejector seat. Since he had reached an altitude of 50 miles (approx. 80 kilometers) on this flight, he is an astronaut according to the US definition . Posthumously he was awarded the "astronaut wings" and his name can be found on the astronaut memorial at the Kennedy Space Center .
Web links
- NASA: CV and description of the accident (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Adams, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Adams, Michael James (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American test pilot and astronaut |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 5, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sacramento, California |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 15, 1967 |