Rocket to glory: Exhibit honors X-15 pilot

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 Forty years after the X-15 crash that took his life, an OU graduate is being honored in an exhibit at the Aerospace Museum of California. 

George Adams of Sacramento is on hand as the Aerospace Museum of California unveils an exhibit about Air Force Maj. Michael J. Adams and the X-15 rocket plane. "He liked more action," George Adams said of his brother. "He was never one to sit behind a desk." Forty years ago, a Sacramento native was making his hometown proud, flying what the wire services called the X-15 rocket ship. He was slipping the surly bonds of Earth in April 1967, press accounts said, by making his first flight to the "fringes of space." Around early November that year, Air Force Maj. Michael J. Adams was back home fishing in Folsom Lake with a boyhood chum. The outdoors, like flight, was a passion. Two weeks later, on Nov. 15, 1967, the graduate of Sacramento High School made his seventh flight in an X-15 rocket-powered plane. The 37-year-old father of three crashed in the California desert. "I'm in a spin ... I'm in a spin," Adams radioed in a calm voice as the plane plunged from an altitude of 50 miles. On Tuesday, the Aerospace Museum of California, at the former McClellan Air Force Base, unveiled its newest exhibit honoring Adams and his short, eventful life as an astronaut. "He gave his life," said Barry Bauer, the museum's curator. "His final flight was epic, the flight in which he earned his astronaut wings. An experimental control system was being tested, and it malfunctioned, leading to the crash." During nearly 10 years of research flights, the X-15 aircraft set the world's speed and altitude records. Flight experts say the risky program was vital to the space race because information gathered benefited the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The exhibit features a one-quarter-sized model of the aircraft, a video of the X-15 in action and a space suit similar to that worn by pilots of the X-15. Among those in attendance at Tuesday's ceremony was Adams' brother, George, 73. He remembered his older brother as outgoing and fun-loving. Michael Adams threw the javelin at Sacramento Junior College before joining the Air Force and flying 49 missions in Korea. He later earned an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Oklahoma and studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "He liked more action, so he went to experimental test pilot school," said his brother. He was one of four aerospace research pilots to participate in moon-landing practice tests. Then he went on to the X-15 program. "He was never one to sit behind a desk," his brother said. For recreation, he enjoyed hunting with his younger brother and his friend Charles Gerdel. The family home was at Eighth Avenue and Stockton Boulevard. Museum curator Bauer provided more details of Adams' life and the X-15 program: Designed during the 1950s, the X-15s made 199 flights. There were 12 pilots, eight of whom earned astronaut wings. "You have to go 50 miles above the surface of the Earth to qualify," said Bauer. The aircraft, launched from a B-52 aircraft at about 45,000 feet, set an altitude record of 67 miles in 1963. "As the space shuttle re-enters each time from orbit, it uses information gained from the X-15 program," said Bauer. "Though the X-15's last flight was 1968, the information gained from the program is still cutting-edge." Article by Bill Lindelof

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