On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 13:44:33 -0700, Mary Shafer wrote:

On 22 Jun 2004 06:02:22 -0700, (Gene
DiGennaro) wrote:

Not to be confused with Bill Dana the X-15 driver and NASA test pilot.
Did Dana ever get astro wings for flying the X-15?

No. He was a civilian employee of NASA, not a military member of the
USAF, so he wasn't eligible. The astronaut wings were only for USAF
pilots.


I just checked the book "Hypersonic" for the flight logs. I says the same
thing as Mary, but a little bit more. It agrees that since Dana was not an
Air Force Pilot he didn't get Astronaut wings for his flight above 50
miles. It also says that the NASA criteria was 62 miles (probably actually
100 KM to be in accord with the FAI).

Only two X-15 flights were above 62 miles, flight #90 and #91, both
piloted by Joe Walker. Neither of these flights were officially observed,
the highest FAI observed flight for the X-15 was 314,750 ft, which was
flight #62 on 17 July 1962. This was the official world record altitude
for a winged aircraft until this past Monday.