Description: In this photograph the Douglas D-558-1 #2 Skystreak is pictured with test pilot Eugene May (Douglas Aircraft Company) on the left and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) research pilot Howard Lilly on the right. The number two Skystreak was the aircraft that crashed taking Howard Lilly's life. The Skystreak in this photograph was still painted bright red. The NACA later had the color of the Skystreaks changed to white to improve optical tracking and photography.
The crash that killed Howard Lilly occurred on May 3, 1948. Lilly had just taken off and retracted the landing gear when the engine compressor broke apart. The fragments severed the airplane's control lines. Lilly had no chance to escape before the D-558-1 hit the lakebed. One of the roads into what is now the Dryden Flight Research Center is named after Lilly, who was the first NACA research pilot killed in the line of duty.
Conceived in 1945, the D-558-1 Skystreak was designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, in conjunction with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The Skystreaks were turojet powered aircraft that took off from the ground under their own power and had straight wings and tails. All three D-558-1 Skystreaks were powered by Allison J35-A-11 turbojet engines producing 5,000 pounds of thrust. All the Skystreaks were initially painted scarlet, which lead to the nickname "crimson test tube." NACA later had the color of the Skystreaks changed to white to improve optical tracking and photography. The Skystreaks carried 634 pounds of instrumentation and were ideal first-generation, simple, transonic research airplanes. Much of the research performed by the D-558-1 Skystreaks, was quickly overshadowed in the public mind by Chuck Yeager and the X-1 rocketplane. However, the Skystreak performed an important role in aeronautical research by flying for extended periods of time at transonic speeds, which freed the X-1 to fly for limited periods at supersonic speeds.
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Credit: NASA
Image Number: E95-43116-8
Date: Circa 1946
Tags: NASA NACA NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Aeronautics 1948 2
A flock of birds takes flight as the orbiter Columbia, with its drag chute deployed, touches down on Runway 22 of Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Shuttle Landing Facility to complete the nearly 16-day STS-90 mission. Main gear touchdown was at 12:08:59 p.m. EDT on May 3, 1998, landing on orbit 256 of the mission. The wheels stopped at 12:09:58 EDT, completing a total mission time of 15 days, 21 hours, 50 minutes and 58 seconds. The 90th Shuttle mission was Columbia's 13th landing at the Space Center and the 43rd KSC landing in the history of the Space Shuttle program. During the mission, the crew conducted research to contribute to a better understanding of the human nervous system. The crew of the STS-90 Neurolab mission included Commander Richard Searfoss; Pilot Scott Altman; Mission Specialists Richard Linnehan, D.V.M., Dafydd (Dave) Williams, M.D., with the Canadian Space Agency, and Kathryn (Kay) Hire; and Payload Specialists Jay Buckey, M.D., and James Pawelczyk, Ph.D.
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Credit: NASA
Image Number: STS-90-s-018
Date: May 3, 1998
Tags: Columbia STS-90 Landing Shuttle Landing Facility SLF
Several members of the 1978 class of astronaut candidates, take a familiarization flight in a KC-135 zero-gravity aircraft on May 3, 1979. Steven R. Nagel (center), Richard Covey (left), George D. Nelson (right - face covered by his arm) and Robert L. Stewart (middle background) were among the half dozen candidates on this particular flight. Obscured in the background are Norman E. Thagard and Ellison S. Onizuka. The zero-gravity aircraft (often known as the "vomit comet") was based at Ellington Field near the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA Media Usage Guidelines
Credit: NASA
Image Number: S-79-31684
Date: May 3, 1979
Tags: KC-135 Vomit Comet Richard Covey Steven Nagal George Nelson Robert Stewart Norman Thagard Ellison Onizuka
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