RIP: Bill Dana (1930-2014)

Bill Dana, the test pilot not the comedian, passed away this past Tuesday. Flew the X-15 6 times.



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Quote:

William H. "Bill" Dana, the famed NASA test pilot who helped usher in the space age in the 1960s by routinely flying rocket planes to new supersonic speeds and stratospheric heights, has died. He was 83. Dana was a square-jawed aviator during an age when pilots strapped into cutting-edge aircraft and blasted it to the edges of the flight envelope -- with little assurance they would return safely.

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