JOHN B. MCKAY, NASA

Jack McKay flew the X-15 for 70 months from 28 October 1960 until 8 September 1966, making 29 flights. These included two flights with the XLR11 and 27 with the XLr99. McKay reached Mach 5.65, a maximum speed of 3,938 mph, and an altitude of 295,600 feet. He made three emergency landings in the X-15, and although was seriously injured on one of them, he returned to fly 22 more X-15 missions.

John Barron "Jack" McKay was born on 8 December 1922 in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1950 with a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering. During World War II he served as a Navy pilot in the Pacific, earning the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters and a Presidential Unit Citation while flying F6F Hellcats.

He joined the NACA on 8 February 1951 and worked at Langley as an engineer for a brief period before transferring to the HSFS, where he flew the F-100, YF-102, F-102A, F-104, YF-107A, D – 558-1, D-558-2, X-1B, and X-1E. With the exception of Scott Crossfield, McKay accumulated more rocket flights than any other U. S. pilot (46 flights before he joined the X-15 program). As Milt Thompson remembers, "Jack was an excellent stick and rudder pilot, possibly the best of the X-15 pilots." McKay retired from the NASA on 5 October 1971 and died on 27 April 1975, mostly from late complications resulting from his X-15 crash. On 23 August 2005, NASA presented McKay’s family with a set of astronaut wings, honoring MacKay’s high-altitude flight in the X-

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