Frank K. Everest

Brig. Gen. Frank K. Everest Jr.

This is some of Gen. Everest's early flight career as a test pilot

Test Aircraft Flown

Bell X-1 #1, Serial #46-062


21 Mar 1949	AF flight 42, Familiarization flight. Mach 1.22 at 40,000 ft.
25 Mar 1949	AF flight 43, Check pressure suit for altitude operation. Mach 1.24 at 48,000 ft. Rocket fire and automatic shutdown.
19 Apr 1949	AF flight 45, Altitude attempt. Only 2 cylinders fired.
5 May 1949	AF flight 47, Engine chamber exploded, jamming rudder. Landed safely.
25 Jul 1949	AF flight 48, Altitude attempt. Attained 66,846 ft.
8 Aug 1949	AF flight 49, Altitude attempt. Attained 71,902 ft. Maximum altitude record.
25 Aug 1949	AF flight 50, First use of partial pressure suit so save life of pilot during flight at high altitude. X-1 lost cockpit pressurization about 69,000 ft. Made safe emergency descent.
29 Nov 1949	AF flight 53, High altitude wing and tail loads investigation.
2 Dec 1949	AF flight 54, Same as flight 53.
21 Feb 1950	AF Flight 55, Wing and tail loads investigation.

Northrop X-4 #2, Serial #46-677


22 Aug 1950	Flight 2, AF fight, pilot check.
22 Aug 1950	Flight 3, Aborted, landing gear malfunction.
30 Aug 1950	Flight 4, Handling qualities.
31 Aug 1950	Flight 5, Same as flight 4.

Bell X-1B, Serial #48-1385


2 Dec 1954	AF flight 10, Mach 2.3 (approx. 1520 mph) at 65,000 ft.

**X-1D, Serial #48-1386**
22 Aug 1951	AF flight 1, Launch aborted, but X-1D suffered low-order explosion during pressuization for fuel jettison. Plane jettisoned from B-50. X-1D exploded on impact with desert. Everest managed to get into B-50 bomb bay before drop. B-50 not damaged, no personal injuries.

Douglas D-558-2 #3, BuAer No. 37975


23 Dec 1954	NACA flight 50, Pilot checkout, jet and rocket flight in clean configuration in preparation for Bell X-2 program.

**D-588-2 #2, BuAer No. 37974**
5 May 1955	NACA flight 50, Pilot familiarization in preparation for X-2 program. Mach 1.46 at 68,000 ft.

Bell X-2 #1, Serial # 46-674


5 Aug 1954	1st glide flight. Damaged on landing.
8 Mar 1955	2nd glide flight. Propellant system check. Minor damage on landing.
6 Apr 1955	3rd glide flight. Damaged on landing. Following flight, plane was returned to Bell plant for extensive modifications to landing gear system to prevent further landing accidents and installation of it's rocket engine.
25 Oct 1955	Aborted powered flight attemt, became 4th glide flight.
18 Nov 1955	1st powered flight. mach 0.992 at 35,000 ft. Slight fire damage from engine bay fire.
24 Mar 1956	Flight 1-56, 2nd powered flight, mach 0.91.
25 Apr 1956	Flight 2-56, 3rd powered flight, mach 1.4 at 50,000 ft.
1 May 1956	Flight 3-56, 4th powered flight, mach 1.683 at 53,700 ft.
11 May 1956	Flight 4-56, 5th powered flight, mach 1.8 at 60,000 ft.
22 May 1956	Flight 5-56, 6th powered flight, mach 2.53 at 58,370 ft.
12 Jul 1956	Flight 7-56, 8th powered flight, premature engine shutdown.
23 Jul 1956	Flight 8-56, 9th powered flight, mach 2.87 at 68,205 ft. New unoffical speed record.

Air Force photo of X-2 courtesy of Edwards AFB
ever-2.jpg (95640 bytes)
Lt. Col. Everest, shown here on Rogers Dry Lake, flew the
X-2 on it's first powered flight and later set a new speed record
of Mach 2.87 (1,900mph) on 23 Jul 1956

Brig. Gen. Everest standing next to the X-2 and B-50

cey-1.jpg (53871 bytes)
Lt. Col. Everest with the B-47 Pilot's Evalutation Program

The above pictures and information courtesy
of the Dryden Flight Research Center

Photo Index	Home Page

Copyright © 1997 Tom Pirtle. All rights reserved.