Neil Armstrong, In His Own Words
The first moonwalker's storied aviation career
- By Tony Reichhardt
- AirSpaceMag.com, August 27, 2012
NASA
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, working as a test pilot at Edwards Air Base in California, Armstrong (pictured in a simulator in 1956) flew practically every high-performance airplane in existence, including the F-86E Sabre, the F4H Phantom, the F-102 and F-104, the X-1B, and most famously, the X-15. Yet, as he told biographer James Hansen, “Our principal responsibility was engineering work. We did not do a lot of flying. It was program development, looking at the problems of flight. It was a wonderful time period, and it was very satisfying work, particularly when you found a solution.”
He wrote in 1970: “Having been in flying machines for many years and faced a lot of difficulty, [pilots] become accustomed to being required to solve problems as they arise …, and particularly test pilots who get a higher percentage of things going wrong than normal pilots. And I'm not saying that we did it perfectly in every case; I'm sure we didn't. But the experience that we'd had in flying a variety of different kinds of machines in difficult circumstances certainly enhances your ability to look at a situation, … analyze it and determine what your probable best course is and how much latitude you have to deviate from that best course. It's not an easy subject to describe adequately, but it seems to have worked."
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Comments (6)
A brush with death and he bites his tongue, is that the secret to a successful carrier that includes Washington? I was just exiting teenage hood when he and Buzz landed, a young adult who had followed the race and was ready to do my part when reality and the economy of the '70s hit. When someone tries to win an argument with things were different then say yes, there were not as many negative people then. After the moon many of us felt we could solve any problem with out today's collateral damage with today's solutions. Enough regulations now there are few home built solar collectors compared to then. Those were heady times to bad we ruined it with the Department of Education. Neil and Buzz will always be my role models.
Posted by Terry on August 27,2012 | 04:40 PM
Who shall be the next Amstrong in America. Who shall be fearless like the late hero?
Posted by Gift on August 29,2012 | 01:47 AM
There shall never be another Armstrong in America....another fearless hero. We are too advanced now...or, in the words of William Shatner's narrative during the opening credits of Star Trek: "Space, the final frontier." Space truly is the final frontier and now matter now if we put a man (or woman) on Mars, Venus or Jupiter, it will not have the same excitement or drama as Armstrong's lunar landing. It was the FIRST time man ventured from the earth and stood on ground not part of the earth. We were still relatively naive with regards to space travel. It hadn't been that long since the Apollo 1 fire claimed the lives of three American astronauts. There were still many questions regarding whether Armstrong and Aldrin could safely lift off of the moon and return to earth.
Now, spaceflight has become so routine, we hardly pay any attention to a launch or a landing.
No, there will never again be a hero the likes of Neil Armstrong. There will never be a "next" one...
Posted by Thomas Carr on August 30,2012 | 04:58 PM
He was a quiet emissary for Earth and for the United States. I was a little kid when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon but recall all the excitement. It changed history and brought President Kennedy's challenge to fruition.
We need more challenges that make us stretch and grow, and less challenges like militarism and arms races that simply waste our precious resources -- including human life. Thank of all that we can accomplish by working together as a species!
Posted by Ken O'Brien on September 5,2012 | 12:00 PM
Neil Armstrong like Charles Lindbergh were "Firsts", neither basked in the limelight. Just quietly moving into history without fanfare, unique American qualities.
Posted by Ben M. Colcol on September 22,2012 | 06:17 PM
Why do we not have a national holiday for Neil Armstrong??? He is clearly one of the bravest men this country and the world has ever known.
Posted by Don Bille on January 2,2013 | 11:01 PM