page_title: Robert L. Stephens
section_title: Test pilot
hierarchical_section_title: Robert L. Stephens / Biography / Test pilot
caption_attribution_description: Lockheed YF-12 pilots
context_page_description: Robert L. "Silver Fox" Stephens was a United States Air Force test pilot who set several speed and altitude records while testing the Lockheed YF-12 and SR-71.
context_section_description: Stephens rose to the top of his profession as a test pilot for some of the most exotic aircraft in the USAF inventory. In 1949, he graduated from the Air Materiel Command Experimental Test Pilot School at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with Class 49D. He was called the "Silver Fox" due to his prematurely gray hair which he kept in a neatly trimmed crew cut. In 1952, Stephens arrived at Edwards Air Force Base, California to serve as Chief of Fighter Operations. From 1963 to 1968, he served as test director of the YF-12 and SR-71 test force. He was the first military pilot to fly the YF-12A interceptor and the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft.
  Stephens flew nearly all jet fighter aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s era from the F-80 Shooting Star to the F-106 Delta Dart. He flight tested the YF-100A, YF-102, XF-104, X-5, X-1B, Navy F2H3, F4D, the F-94 series, F-86, F-89D, F-89H, and YF-101. He served as test director for the F-104 program and performed the first wingtip fuel tank jettison test. On this flight, the fuel tanks slammed into the fuselage of the F-104 instead of falling free. Stephens made an emergency landing and saved the aircraft. Working with Lockheed engineers and other aviation consultants, he helped solve this and other problems with the F-104.
  On May 1, 1965, at Edwards Air Force Base, pilot Stephens and fire control officer Daniel Andre, established four world speed and altitude records in the YF-12A. They averaged 2,070 miles per hour over a 17-kilometer straight away course, then held 80,257 feet to establish a world record for sustained horizontal flight. These records stood until 1977 when they were surpassed by an SR-71.
  After retiring from the military in 1973, Stephens was the U.S. representative for the German jet engine firm, MTU.
caption: Stephens and Andre after their record setting YF-12A flight in 1965
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