William J . Knight William J . " Pete " Knight ( November 18 , 1929 – May 7 , 2004 ) was a U . S . politician , combat pilot , test pilot , and astronaut . Knight holds the world ' s speed record for flight in a winged , powered aircraft . As a politician , he is noted as the author of California Proposition 22 , which forbade the state from performing or recognizing same - sex marriage . Air Force career . Knight joined the United States Air Force in 1951 . While only a Second Lieutenant , he flew an F - 89 at the National Air Show in 1954 and won the Allison Jet Trophy . Starting in 1958 , Knight served as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base . He was a project test pilot for the F - 100 , F - 101 Voodoo , F - 104 Starfighter and later , T - 38 and F - 5 test programs . In 1960 , he was one of six test pilots selected to fly the X - 20 Dyna - Soar , which was slated to become the first winged orbital space vehicle capable of lifting reentries and conventional landings . After the X - 20 program was canceled in 1963 , he completed the astronaut training curriculum at Edwards AFB and was selected to fly the North American X - 15 . He had more than his share of eventful flights in the X - 15 . While climbing through at Mach 4 . 17 on June 29 , 1967 , he suffered a total electrical failure and all onboard systems shut down . After reaching a maximum altitude of , he calmly set up a visual approach and , resorting to old - fashioned " seat - of - the - pants " flying , he glided down to a safe emergency landing at Mud Lake , Nevada . For his remarkable feat of airmanship that day , he earned a Distinguished Flying Cross . On October 3 , 1967 , Knight set a world aircraft speed record for manned aircraft by piloting the X - 15A - 2 to ( Mach 6 . 72 ) , a record that still stands today . During 16 flights in the aircraft , Knight also became one of only five pilots to earn their Astronaut Wings by flying an airplane in space , reaching an altitude of . After nearly ten years of test flying at Edwards AFB , he went to Southeast Asia in 1968 where he completed a total of 253 combat sorties in the F - 100 . Following his combat tour , he served as test director during development of the F - 15 Eagle at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton , Ohio . He also was the Program Director for the International Fighter ( F - 5 ) Program at Wright - Patterson . In 1979 , he returned to Edwards AFB , and served as a test pilot for the F - 16 Fighting Falcon . After 32 years of service and more than 6 , 000 hours in the cockpits of more than 100 different aircraft , he retired from the U . S . Air Force as a Colonel in 1982 . In honor of his achievements , Knight was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor with the inaugural class of 1990 . Political career . In 1984 , he was elected to the city council of Palmdale , California , and four years later became the city ' s first elected mayor . Along with becoming the fastest man in the world when he flew the X - 15 , he was also the Mayor of Palmdale when it was the fastest growing city in both California and the United States . In 1992 , he was elected to serve in the California State Assembly representing the 36th District . He served in the State Senate representing the 17th District from 1996 until his death on May 7 , 2004 . Knight ' s youngest son , Steve Knight served as Assemblyman for the 36th Assembly District from 2008 to 2012 , the seat previously held by his father . Proposition 22 . During his term in the Senate , Knight gained statewide attention in 2000 as the author of Proposition 22 , a . k . a . the " Knight Initiative , " the purpose of which was to ban same - sex marriage : " Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California . " The proposition passed with 61 . 4 % approval and 38 . 6 % against . On March 9 , 2004 , Knight ' s son , David Knight , who is gay , married his partner during the period when San Francisco performed same - sex marriages in defiance of state law . These marriages were later nullified by the California Supreme Court in 2004 . The Court later found Proposition 22 to be unconstitutional in " In re Marriage Cases " ( 2008 ) . School in his name . In the city of Palmdale , Pete Knight High School was opened in his memory . The school began its first year in the school year of 2003 - 2004 and celebrated its first graduating class in 2007 .