 Streett was transferred to Selfridge Field, Michigan, in August 1926, and appointed commanding officer of the First Pursuit Group Headquarters. He was assigned to Wright Field, Ohio in March 1928 as test pilot and chief of the Flying Branch. Flying the XCO-5 on October 10, 1928, Streett and Albert William Stevens achieved an unofficial altitude record for aircraft carrying more than one person: 37,854 feet (11,538 m); less than 1,000 feet (300 m) short of the official single-person altitude record. At that height they measured a temperature of − 78°F (− 61°C), cold enough to freeze the aircraft controls. With frozen controls, Streett was unable to reduce altitude or to turn off the engine until some twenty minutes later when it ran out of fuel, after which he piloted the fragile experimental biplane down in a gentle glide and made a deadstick landing. An article about the feat appeared in Popular Science in May 1929, entitled "Stranded — Seven Miles Up!" During July 1932, he was on special assignment as assistant in the preparation of data on performance tests of aircraft.
