page_title: Milton Orville Thompson
section_title: Test pilot
hierarchical_section_title: Milton Orville Thompson / Test pilot
caption_attribution_description: English: Jay L. King, Joseph D. Huxman and Orion D. Billeter assist NASA research pilot Milt Thompson (on the ladder) into the cockpit of the M2-F2 lifting body research aircraft at the NASA Flight Research Center (now the Dryden Flight Research Center). The M2-F2 is attached to a wing pylon under the wing of NASA's B-52 mothership.
context_page_description: Milton Orville Thompson, better known as Milt Thompson, was an American naval officer, aviator, engineer, and NASA research pilot. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the United States Air Force and NASA. He was also selected for participation in the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
  Following his involvement with the X-15 program, Thompson became Chief Engineer and Director of Research Projects at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.
context_section_description: Thompson was hired as an engineer at the flight research facility on 19 March 1956, when it was still under the auspices of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). He became a research pilot in January 1958.
  On 16 August 1963, Thompson became the first person to fly a lifting body, the lightweight NASA M2-F1. The plywood and steel-tubing prototype was flown as a glider after being released from an R4D tow plane. He flew it a total of 47 times, and also made the first five flights of the all-metal Northrop M2-F2 lifting body, beginning 12 July 1966.
  Lifting bodies were wingless vehicles designed to generate lift and aerodynamic stability from the shape of their bodies. They were flown at Dryden to study and validate the concept of safely maneuvering and landing a low lift-over-drag vehicle designed for reentry from space. Data from the program helped in the development of the Space Shuttle.
  Thompson was also one of the 12 NASA, Air Force, and Navy pilots to fly the North American X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft between 1959 and 1968. He began flying X-15s on 29 October 1963, only 74 days after his first Lifting Body flight. He flew the aircraft 14 times during the following two years, reaching a maximum speed of 3,712 mph (Mach 5.48) and a peak altitude of 214,100 feet on separate flights.
  The X-15 program provided a wealth of data on aerodynamics, thermodynamics, propulsion, flight controls, and the physiological aspects of high-speed, high-altitude flight.
  Thompson was one of an elite group of eight pilots who tested the paraglider research vehicle NASA Paresev.
  In 1962 the U.S. Air Force selected Thompson to be the only civilian test pilot to fly in the X-20 Dyna-Soar program that was intended to launch a human into Earth orbit and recover with a horizontal ground landing. The program was canceled before construction of the vehicle began.
caption: Thompson (center) and the M2-F2 Lifting Body
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