Pilots

The very best test pilots are publicly shy to the point of reticence. Their soft-spoken natures mean they are not well known outside of the flight-test community. One of those pilots is widely respected among test pilots for the work he performed in the chilliest days of the Cold War. Then, a national obsession with secrecy meant that much of what he did was not divulged publicly. He is Alvin White, now 83 and living in Tucson, Arizona, where he is still sought out for his knowledge of high-speed flight within the atmosphere. He tested many of the technology-shattering, Century-series jet fighters (F–100 and on) and the incredible Mach 3 bomber, the XB–70 Valkyrie.

Growing up in Auburn, California, White learned to fly in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. He joined the Army Air Force before World War II and earned his wings in May 1942. For two years he was a multiengine instructor before training for combat in the P–38 and P–47. Arriving at Steeple Morden, England, on June 5, 1944, as a new member of the 355th Fighter Group, he discovered they flew P–51 Mustangs. He was given 45 minutes in a P–51. The next day he flew two missions in the Mustang in support of the D-Day invasion.

White flew Mustangs for the rest of the war, getting one confirmed kill in air-to-air combat. After the war he obtained a degree in engineering from the University of California at Berkley. Civilian life lacked luster, so in 1948 White rejoined the Air Force. He attended test pilot school in 1952, graduated first in his class, and was offered a job at Edwards Air Force Base. By 1954 private industry beckoned, promising a chance to wring out the first of the Century-series fighters for North American Aviation. It promised to be more exciting, and potentially more risky, than the Air Force work because the manufacturer had to complete its test program, getting the kinks out of an airplane before military pilots even got their hands on it. At North American, White joined Bob Hoover and Scott Crossfield as one of only 12 engineering test pilots.

White's first experimental test at North American involved flying an F–100A at 833 knots indicated airspeed at 10,000 feet after a dive from 50,000 feet. Then he sharply hit the stick and kicked the rudder pedals to try to induce flutter. In numerous variants of the F–100 and the superbly performing Mach 2 F–107, White took untested jets to all corners of their performance envelopes. He never put a scratch on an airplane, although test pilots died in the Century-series jets at an alarming rate.

In 1961, White became North American's chief test pilot. He continued the program he had started in 1957, testing the triplesonic XB–70. The stories of what White did to get the two prototypes through the complete test program are legion. Just flying the airplane at 70,000 feet was interesting, given that a one-degree pitch change at 2,000 mph resulted in a 3,000-fpm altitude change.

Sadly, what seems to be most remembered is the loss of one prototype. On return from one of the last flights in the hugely complicated test program, White formed up with other G.E.-powered jets for photographs. During the shoot, Joe Walker, in an F–104, hit the drooped leading edge of the XB–70's right wing with the left portion of his jet's T-tail. The impact caused the F–104 to roll violently across the top of the XB–70, removing one vertical stabilizer and most of another from the larger airplane. It was not a wake turbulence accident, as is popularly recounted, because Walker was flying in front of the bomber's wing. In the ensuing ejection White was grievously injured, the only one of the three pilots to survive the collision.

White received recognition for his work from the small world of experimental flight testing. Every year the Society of Experimental Test Pilots identifies one or more pilots with its Kinchloe award. White was recognized in 1965. President Johnson presented the Harmon Trophy to White and Gemini astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell in 1966. On the trophy is etched the phrase, "World's Outstanding Aviator."

A monument to this quiet man stands at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. There the remaining XB–70 towers over airplanes built for lesser speeds. Under its cockpit is painted a series of titles and names. Next to the word pilot the first name to appear is: Alvin White.