White Alvin Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male. Born in Berkeley, California, USA. US Air Force Bachelor of science from the University of California. US Air Force Test Pilot for North American Aviation, assigned to X-15 project, but made no flights.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Man-In-Space-Soonest - 1958, Test Pilot (USAF). Deceased Entered space service: 1958. Left space service: 1958. Mentioned as candidate for Man In Space Soonest programme in 1958.

From December 1960 chief test pilot at North American for the XB-70 bomber (made the first flight on 21 September 1964). In 1967, after the crash of the XB-70 on a publicity flight, he left the North American and worked for two years at Trans World Airlines. Later he founded his own consulting firm.

25 June 1958 - Man-In-Space-Soonest. In a US Air Force briefing a preliminary astronaut selection for the Man-In-Space Soonest project is made. The list consisted of USAF test pilots Robert Walker, Scott Crossfield, Neil Armstrong, Robert Rushworth, William Bridgeman, Alvin White, Iven Kincheloe, Robert White, and Jack McKay. This was the first preliminary astronaut selection in history. The project was cancelled when NASA was formed in and took responsibility for all manned space flight on 1 August 1958. Prospective contractors estimated it would take from 12 to 30 months to put the first American in orbit. In retrospect the orbital flight portion of NASA's Mercury program was paced by the availability of the Atlas booster. Therefore it is unlikely Man-in-Space-Soonest would have put an American in orbit any earlier than Mercury.