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Contact Info
Home Town Buffalo, Kansas
Last Address Edwards Air Force Base, California
Date of Passing Sep 27, 1956
Location of Interment Buffalo Cemetery - Buffalo, Kansas
He was a US test pilot. He was killed in the destruction of the Bell X-2 during
a test flight.
After having been launched from a B-50 bomber over the Mojave
Desert in California, Capt. Milburn G. Apt (USAF), flying an X-2 rocket-powered
plane on its 13th powered flight, set a record speed of 3,377 km/h, or Mach
3.196 at 19,977 m (65,541 ft). Subsequent loss of control from inertia coupling
led to the breakup of the aircraft and the death of the pilot. The X-2,
initially an Air Force program, was scheduled to be transferred to the civilian
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) for scientific research. The
Air Force delayed turning the aircraft over to the NACA in the hope of attaining
Mach 3 in the airplane. The service requested and received a two-month extension
to qualify another Air Force test pilot, Capt. Milburn "Mel" Apt, in the X-2 and
attempt to exceed Mach 3. In the run-up to his first rocket-plane flight, Apt
had several ground briefings in the simulator. His simulator training had
indicated control difficulties in high-speed flight, and possible techniques for
handling them. On 27 September 1956, Apt made his first X-2 flight. Apt raced
away from the B-50 under full power, quickly outdistancing the F-100 chase
planes. At high altitude, he nosed over, accelerating rapidly. At 65,000 feet,
the X-2 reached Mach 3.2 (2,094 mph), making Apt the first man to fly more than
three times the speed of sound. Upon rocket burnout, Apt found himself further
from home than anticipated. The planned flight profile called for slowing to
Mach 2.4 before turning back to base. The additional time to slow before turning
may have put him beyond safe gliding range of his planned runway. Still above
Mach 3, he began a turn back to Edwards. The X-2 began a series of diverging
rolls and tumbled out of control. Apt tried to regain control of the aircraft.
Unable to do so, Apt separated the escape capsule. Too late, he attempted to
bail out and was killed when the capsule hit the Edwards bombing range. The rest
of the X-2 crashed five miles away. Apt earned a B.S. in Engineering Sciences
from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1951.
