We also have Edwards Air Force Base to remind us of the price paid by those who wring out prototypes on their way to operational success. These developments, too, came at sobering cost. In 1956, Capt. Just weeks later, in the exact same plane, Capt. Mel Apt exceeded mach 3, but promptly perished when his X-2 tumbled out of control.
Novel technologies carry disproportionate risk.
Mr. Armstrong puts one in mind of the Apollo Program that began in the 1960s, and aeronautical innovations in multi-stage rocketry. Today, Americans go to the Space Station by Shuttle, but not without painful memories of Apollo One, which ended the lives of three superb aviators and astronauts, Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, or more recently the Challenger crew. In both cases, technology was advancing rapidly and an unforeseeable glitch among thousands of mission-critical parts precipitated sudden catastrophe. And in both cases, the program was strengthened by the unforgettable starkness of the event. In fact, while practicing moon landings on Earth, Neil Armstrong's own vertical take-off platform malfunctioned.