Levsha

No.

wabpilot

Joe Walker twice flew an X-15 above the FAI defined limits of the upper atmosphere. (100 kilometers, well above the NASA 50 mile or 80 Km limit.) Walker's first and second flights were in 1963.

Ironduke

He would have been the first to fly in outer space three times as well. Sadly, he died during a practice exercise for the Apollo 1 mission.

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The Buck Stops Here

Ironduke

Doesn't there have to be at least one orbit to count as spaceflight?

wabpilot

Not according to the FAI. They define space flight as being above 100 kilometers approximately 60 miles. According to NASA space flight is above 50 miles. The atmosphere does not have a true edge. It varies and even above what we call atmosphere, there are stray molecules of nitrogen, hydrogen and even oxygen floating about. The FAI definition definitey gets above most of the stray molecules.

dave lukins

John Glenn.




I'll try..Jim McDivitt

Albany Rifles

Glenn only made one flight

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"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves." TSGT Oddball, Tank Commander

Levsha

Joe Walker was the very man I had in mind, and in fact he was the world's first astronaut to do the 'double', not just the first American.

But I should think that nearly all X-15 flights that flew above 110,000 feet could be considered as 'space flights' as regards actually advancing the development of space craft technologies - you need spacecraft spec life support systems at that altitude, along with a system of attitude control thrusters. The fact of the matter is, the Americans already had vast experience in the attitude adjustment of spacecraft flying in the vacuum of space (hydrogen peroxide thrusters), a long time before the Mercury and Vostok "man in a can" programmes...

dave lukins

Sorry, meant to say the first American to orbit the Earth

Albany Rifles

Okay BTW, hope I didn't appear abrupt

entropy

Hmm, I'll try to answer something so that I can ask something about Soviet aircraft.

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If memory serves...

Gun Grape

Glen did 2. One as a Mercury Astronaut and the second on the Space Shuttle in 1998.

That "Mig Mad Marine" is one of my childhood heros

Albany Rifles

I sit corrected.

How could I forget....I was thinking of the early 60s but you are spot on.

1 Observer

Wait wait wait ... IS there someone ... some first Lunatic that throtled up a C-130 from a carrier!? My god! was he Pissed? Better yet, did he live?

Gun Grape

Navy Lt.(Adm) James H. Flatley III. flying a USMC KC-130 aboard the Forrestal

Survived and earned the DFC for the effort.

And he wasn't a trash hauler by trade. A fighter pilot and recent Test Pilot graduate.



But I believe its WabPilot's turn to ask a question.