Page 6 - Aerotech News and Review, September 17, 2021

Memories of NASA test pilot Tom McMurtry at Mojave

by Cathy Hansen 1958, and logged more than 11,000 a consultant for Lockheed Aircraft for
special to Aerotech News hours flying time. He also owned a three years, and then stepped into his
WACO UPF-7 open-cockpit biplane. flight test career in 1967 with NASA’s
Nearly 20 years ago, I remember He loved to fly, low and slow, as well Flight Research Center at Edwards,
seeing Tom McMurtry, working in as high and fast! Calif.
his hangar at the then Mojave Airport. Early on in his life, he followed in His first assignment was to fly
He had the sweetest little 1939 J-3 his brother’s footsteps and joined the the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter with
“Cub” made by the Piper Aircraft Naval ROTC Program in high school the X-15 program! Later, he was
Company. Tom’s J-3 was manufac- and earned a full scholarship to Notre co-project pilot on the F-8 Crusader
tured in Lockhaven, Penn., in 1939, Dame, where he earned a Mechani- Digital Fly-By-Wire program. He
and the airframe logs show that it cal Engineering Degree. He served served on some of the first remotely
was restored in Santa Paula, Calif., in the U.S. Navy as a carrier pilot, piloted research vehicle programs
in 1987. He purchased it in 1996 to flying F9F Cougars and later A3D’s. (now called UAVs). One of the most
give his kids flight instruction. It had He served one and a half deployments well-known remotely piloted projects
a 65hp Continental engine and two to the Far East aboard the USS Kitty was the FAA/NASA 720 Controlled
eight-gallon extended-range wing Hawk, flying A3D Sky Warrior, heavy Impact Demonstration, with Fitz Ful-
tanks, giving a total flight time of a attack bombers. ton as pilot.
little more than five hours. He retired from the Navy in 1963, McMurtry was also co-project pilot
Tom received his pilot’s license in but he still loved to fly. He worked as on the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire pro-
gram, and on several remotely piloted
research vehicle programs such as the
FAA/NASA 720 Controlled Impact
Demonstration and the sub-scale F-15 NASA photograph
spin research project. On Nov. 26, Tom McMurtry stands in front of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
1975, the X-24B lifting body dropped
from the sky for the last time, piloted 1998, Tom served as Director for Hornet after the 990 landed.
on this 36th flight by McMurtry. He Flight Operations. In the cockpit of the CV-990 were
also co-piloted the 747 Shuttle Carrier He also flew with the last flight of Dryden Project Pilot C. Gordon Ful-
Aircraft as it transported the prototype the Convair 990 (CV-990) aircraft lerton and Dryden Chief of Flight
Shuttle Enterprise on its first launch from Edwards, formerly used by Operations, Tom McMurtry. Airport
on Aug. 12, 1977. NASA as a medium-altitude research Manager, Dan Sabovich, was there to
Tom flew as co-pilot with Fitz on platform and Landing Systems Re- greet the crew. This aircraft is now
the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Air- search Aircraft (LSRA) that landed on display as one of Mojave Air and
craft with the Space Shuttle “Enter- at Mojave Airport on Oct. 24, 1996. Space Port’s Gate Guards.
prise” Approach and Landing pro- A NASA F/A-18 flew chase with Most airplane people know that
Photograph by Cathy Hansen the J-3’s logo is a little bear holding
Tom McMurtry’s J-3 Cub. gram. Before retiring from NASA the CV-990 and Dryden Research Pi-
Dryden Flight Research Center in lot, Ed Schneider did a fly-by with the See McMURTRY, page 7

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