Arthur W . Murray Arthur Warren " Kit " Murray ( December 26 , 1918 – July 25 , 2011 ) was a United States test pilot . He flew test flights on the Bell X - 1 and the Bell X - 5 aircraft . Early life . Arthur Warren Murray was born to Charles C . " Chester " and Elsie Murray in the small town of Cresson nestled in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania on December 26 , 1918 . Military career . With World War II already underway in Europe , he joined the United States Army in 1939 , and served in the Cavalry . Kit volunteered for pilot training the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor , and by 1943 was flying the P - 40 as a fighter pilot in Africa . His unit worked its way across the continent from Casablanca to Tunisia , escorting B - 25 , B - 26 and A - 20 bombers as well as performing dive bombing and strafing missions . His unit was proud to never have lost a bomber to enemy fighters while under their escort . Test piloting . After a year tour in Africa , Kit returned to the United States as a P - 47 instructor at Bradley Field near Hartford , Connecticut . He was then assigned as a maintenance flight test pilot and sent to Maintenance Engineering School at Chanute Air Force Base . After completion of that school his commander found out about the Flight Test School at Wright Field and decided to send him there . Here was where Kit got his big break as he quickly found out this school was not for functional test flights , but for experimental test programs . He kept his mouth shut and stuck with the program , and soon was offered the opportunity to be the first permanent test pilot to be assigned to Muroc Airfield ( later Edwards Air Force Base ) in the California desert . Until then , pilots were based at the Wright Field Test Center and assigned TDY as needed to Muroc . Chuck Yeager was making such trips out there from the Test Center while he was flying the Bell X - 1 on the first supersonic test flights . In early tests Kit was able to fly some of America ’ s earliest jet aircraft including the Bell XP - 59 and the P - 80 . He also flew the P - 51 , P - 82 , F - 84 , B - 25 , B - 43 , B - 45 and many other fighter and bomber aircraft . Kit flight tested the X - 1A and X - 1B , the X - 4 , the X - 5 , and also flew the XF - 92A . In the X - 1A , Kit set altitude records of over 90 , 000 feet and was considered at the time , 1954 , America ’ s first space pilot . He was the first to see the curvature of the earth and the sky dark at mid - day . The X - 1A was powered by four rocket motors using liquid oxygen and alcohol as fuel . Looking rather exotic even in photos today , the X - 1 used nitrogen tanks to pressurize many of the systems including the fuel tanks , cockpit and the landing gear system . However , the flight controls were completely conventional with strictly mechanical linkage and no hydraulic boost . The X - 1A was launched from the belly of a B - 29 and later a B - 50 , and the flight profile had him using a 45 degree pitch attitude with airspeeds reaching about Mach 2 . On his first couple of high altitude flights , Kit said his plane would snap into a spin when the motors burned out while approaching his peak altitude . He finally figured that the rocket motors were installed very slightly offset which , to keep it going straight , was causing him to have to cross control the plane increasingly as it accelerated . When the engines shut off , the cross - control condition , which was keeping the airplane from yawing , now became the perfect spin entry input . After two flights involving supersonic spin recovery , Kit was quick to neutralize the controls immediately upon motor shutdown in later flights . He had taped a string in front of the windshield to determine his rudder trim input . Kit was the first pilot to fly the X1 - B aircraft in powered flight , and he said it was a much straighter flying rocket ship than the X - 1A . The X - 4 he flew was basically a flying wing type aircraft ( no horizontal tail ) and the X - 5 was a variable sweep test platform . Kit was a test pilot at Muroc / Edwards from 1949 to 1955 , an unusually long time for that assignment . Kit ’ s next Air Force assignment was in Paris , France . He was in charge of technology integration for the U . S . Regional Organization there and was privileged to fly some of Europe ’ s top airplanes at the time , including the Italian Fiat G - 91 , the French Mystere , and the British Javelin . After that one year assignment he went to Wright - Patterson Air Force Base as head of new developments at the Systems Project Office . During his time there , 1958 – 1960 , he was Air Force manager for the X - 15 program , which attained record altitudes of 354 , 000 feet and a speed record of 4 , 534 m . p . h . ( Mach 6 . 7 ) . The X - 15 program contributed enormously to the space program and high speed aircraft research , and was acclaimed as the most successful test program of its type . Kit held the rank of Major at the time , but this was considered a Colonel ’ s job . He was approached by Boeing in 1960 . He retired with over 20 years of military service and became Boeing ' s " company astronaut " managing crew integration for the space program . In that capacity he massaged the gap between engineers and scientists who just wanted astronauts to ride in a sealed capsule , and pilots who wanted to be able to see what was going on during flights . Kit worked for Boeing on many space program projects from 1960 to 1969 , from the X - 20 ( a single place space shuttle ) to the Apollo program . He was Technical Integration Manager for Boeing at Cape Canaveral . Engineering . In 1969 Kit moved to the Ft . Worth area to become Air Force Requirements Engineer for Bell Helicopter in the tilt rotor program . He worked for them until 1971 , then gradually slowed down in retirement , but still doing many things interesting to him . He managed a hunting club , flew some charter work for Mustang Aviation in Dallas then did some courtroom reporting for the Bosque County newspaper . Kit also was project manager for the restoration of the Bosque County Courthouse , taking it back to its 1886 splendor . Personal life . Arthur Murray married Elizabeth Ann ( Betty Anne ) Strelic in 1943 . They had six children , Michael , John , Christopher , Catherine , Patrick , Peter . The family fostered a seventh child , Elizabeth Anne ( Betsy ) from the time of her birth in 1963 until the couple separated in 1966 . Arthur remarried in 1970 to Dallas Interior Designer Ann Humphreys . Ann now lives in Central Texas on a small horse farm . They combined their efforts and expertise in renovating the Bosque County Court House and charter members of TETRA , an equine trail riding Organization . Kit Murray died on July 25 , 2011 at a nursing home in the town of West , Texas at the age of 92 . Honors . Murray was awarded the following decorations for his military service : Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with eight oak leaf cluster s . He is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and recipient of the French Medal of the City of Paris . In 1996 , Murray was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster , California that honors test pilots who have contributed to aviation and space research and development .