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Wood

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X-20 Dynasoar Credit - © Mark Wade

1966 July. (Cancelled flight). Crew: Wood. At the time the Dynasoar project was cancelled, the first manned single-orbit flight was planned for July 1966. The flight would have been devoted to demonstrating pilot control of the spacecraft and evaluation of the systems (this was to hve followed two unmanned flight tests). A nominal re-entry would be flown at a pitch angle of 36 degrees.

Jim Wood would have flown the first manned Dyna-Soar -- he was the senior test pilot on the project, and Hank Gordon told Michael Cassutt years ago that there was no question he was going to get the first flight. (The Dyna-Soar office was structured like a typical Edwards flight test program, where there really was a lead or senior project pilot). The other five X-20 pilots in active training at the end of the program were Crews, Gordon, Knight, Rogers, and Thompson.

• - 1966 July - Dynasoar 3 (cancelled)  Crew: Wood. Spacecraft: Dynasoar.

  At the time the Dynasoar project was cancelled, the first manned single-orbit flight was planned for July 1966. Jim Wood would have flown the first manned Dyna-Soar.

• Baker, David, The History of Manned Spaceflight, Crown, New York, 1981. The best overview of America's manned space programs up to Skylab. Information and details not available anywhere else. Unfortunately out of print and difficult to locate.

• Houchin II, Roy and Smith, Terry, Quest, "X-20 (7 articles)", 1994, Volume 3, Issue 4, page 4.

• Godwin, Robert, editor, Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System, Collector's Guide Publishing, Ontario, Canada, 2003.. ISBN: 1896522955. Collection of contemporary documents covering the development and death of Dyna-Soar, as well as a DVD with video of promotional films and systems tests. More at amazon.com...