Robert M. White has died. In 1962 he flew an X-15 research plane nearly 60 miles above Earth and then landed it on a dry lake.
"But Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter went into space seated atop ballistic missiles and returned in capsules that parachuted onto the ocean.
White did it as the pilot of a rocket-powered X-15 research airplane, flying nearly 60 miles above the Earth's surface and completing a conventional landing on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base.His out-of-this-world adventure earned him the distinction of being the first man to earn a winged astronaut rating by piloting an airplane in space.
White, a retired Air Force major general who also was a decorated veteran of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars, died of age-related causes in his sleep March 17 at an assisted-living facility in Orlando, Fla., said his son, Greg. He was 85...
He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery."
You're on the ultimate flight path now, Mister. RIP
