WILLIAM H. DANA, NASA

Bill Dana flew the X-15 for 35 months from 4 November 1965 until 24 October 1968, making 16 flights. All of these were with the XLR99 engine. Dana reached Mach 5.53, a maximum speed of 3,897 mph, an altitude of 306,900 feet, and flew the last flight of the program.

William Harvey Dana was born on 3 November 1930 in Pasadena, California. He received his bachelor of science degree from the U. S. Military Academy in 1952 and served four years as a pilot in the Air Force. He joined NASA after receiving a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1958.

During the late 1960s and the 1970s, Dana was a project pilot on the manned lifting-body program, for which he received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. In 1976 he received the Haley Space Flight Award from the AIAA for his research work on the M2-F3 lifting-body control systems. In 1986 Dana became the chief pilot at the FRC, and later was an assistant chief of the Flight Operations Directorate. He was also a project pilot on the F-15 HIDEC (highly integrated digital electronic control) research program, and a co-project pilot on the F-18 high-angle-of – attack research program. In August 1993, Dana became chief engineer, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.1101

He was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in 1993 and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1997. In 1998 the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum honored Dana when he delivered the Charles A. Lindbergh Memorial Lecture. On 23 August 2005, Dana finally received astronaut wings for his two X-15 flights above 50 miles altitude.-1111