Editing Neil Armstrong (section)

== Test pilot ==
Following his graduation from Purdue, Armstrong became an experimental research test pilot. He applied at the [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA) [[Armstrong Flight Research Center|High-Speed Flight Station]] at Edwards Air Force Base.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=119–120}} NACA had no open positions, and forwarded his application to the [[Glenn Research Center|Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory]] in [[Cleveland]], where Armstrong made his first test flight on March 1, 1955.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=119–120}} Armstrong's stint at Cleveland lasted only a couple of months before a position at the High-Speed Flight Station became available, and he reported for work there on July 11, 1955.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=130}}

[[File:Neil Armstrong 1956 portrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=A black-and-white photo of a young man with light skin and pale irises. His mid-colored hair is cut short. He is looking at the camera. He is wearing a barleycorn sport coat, a white shirt and a dark necktie.|Armstrong, 26, <!-- taken November 20, 1956, --> as a test pilot at the [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics|NACA]] [[Armstrong Flight Research Center|High-Speed Flight Station]] at [[Edwards Air Force Base|Edwards AFB]], California]]
On his first day, Armstrong was tasked with piloting [[chase plane]]s during releases of experimental aircraft from modified bombers. He also flew the modified bombers, and on one of these missions had his first flight incident at Edwards. On March 22, 1956, he was in a [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress]],{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=134}} which was to air-drop a [[Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket]]. He sat in the right-hand co-pilot seat while pilot in command, Stan Butchart sat in the left-hand pilot seat flying the B-29.<ref>{{cite web |last=Creech |first=Gray |title=From the Mojave to the Moon: Neil Armstrong's Early NASA Years |publisher=NASA |date=July 15, 2004 |url=http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/neil_armstrong.html |access-date=May 17, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630200654/http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/neil_armstrong.html |archive-date=June 30, 2011}}</ref>

As they climbed to {{convert|30000|ft|km|0}}, the [[aircraft engine position number|number-four engine]] stopped and the [[Propeller (aircraft)|propeller]] began windmilling (rotating freely) in the airstream. Hitting the switch that would stop the propeller's spinning, Butchart watched it slow, then resume spinning even faster than the others; if it spun too fast, it would break apart. Their aircraft needed to hold an airspeed of {{convert|210|mph|0|abbr=on}} to launch its Skyrocket payload, and the B-29 could not land with the Skyrocket attached to its belly. Armstrong and Butchart brought the aircraft into a nose-down [[Attitude (geometry)|attitude]] to increase speed, then launched the Skyrocket. At the instant of launch, the number-four engine propeller disintegrated. Pieces of it damaged the number-three engine and hit the number-two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the damaged number-three engine, along with the number-one engine, because of the [[torque]] it created. They made a slow, circling descent from {{convert|30000|ft|km|0|abbr=on}} using only the number-two engine, and landed safely.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=134–136}}

Armstrong served as project pilot on [[Century Series]] fighters, including the [[North American F-100 Super Sabre]] A and C variants, the [[McDonnell F-101 Voodoo]], the [[Lockheed F-104 Starfighter]], the [[Republic F-105 Thunderchief]] and the [[Convair F-106 Delta Dart]]. He also flew the [[Douglas DC-3]], [[Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star]], [[North American F-86 Sabre]], [[McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II]], [[Douglas F5D-1 Skylancer]], Boeing B-29 Superfortress, [[Boeing B-47 Stratojet]] and [[Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker]], and was one of eight elite pilots involved in the [[NASA Paresev|Paresev]] paraglider research vehicle program.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=136–138}} Over his career, he flew more than 200 different models of aircraft.<ref name="NASA-bio" /> His first flight in a [[rocket-powered aircraft]] was on August 15, 1957, in the [[Bell X-1]]B, to an altitude of {{convert|11.4|mi|km|1}}. On landing, the poorly designed [[Landing gear|nose landing gear]] failed, as had happened on about a dozen previous flights of the Bell X-1B. He flew the [[North American X-15]] seven times,{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=145}} including the first flight with the Q-ball system, the first flight of the number{{nbsp}}3 X-15 airframe, and the first flight of the MH-96 adaptive flight control system.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mach25media.com/Resources/X15FlightLog.pdf |title=The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flight Log |pages=22, 25 |publisher=Mach 25 Media |first=Michelle |last=Evans |year=2013 |access-date=February 28, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413002147/http://www.mach25media.com/Resources/X15FlightLog.pdf |archive-date=April 13, 2018}}</ref>{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=147}} He became an employee of the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA) when it was established on October 1, 1958, absorbing NACA.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Biographies/glennan.html |title=T. Keith Glennan |publisher=NASA |access-date=March 4, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214234112/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Biographies/glennan.html |archive-date=February 14, 2017 }}</ref>

Armstrong was involved in several incidents that went down in Edwards folklore or were chronicled in the memoirs of colleagues. During his sixth X-15 flight on April 20, 1962, Armstrong was testing the MH-96 control system when he flew to a height of over {{convert|207000|ft|km}} (the highest he flew before [[Gemini 8]]). He held up the aircraft nose during its descent to demonstrate the MH-96's g-limiting performance, and the X-15 ballooned back up to around {{convert|140000|feet|km}}. He flew past the landing field at [[Mach number|Mach]]{{nbsp}}3 at over {{convert|100000|ft|km}} in altitude, and ended up {{convert|40|mi|km}} south of Edwards. After sufficient descent, he turned back toward the landing area, and landed. It was the longest X-15 flight in both flight time and length of the ground track.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=178–184}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/neil-armstrongs-x-15-flight-over-pasadena-59458462/ |title=Neil Armstrong's X-15 flight over Pasadena |work=Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine |last=Klesius |first=Mike |date=May 20, 2009 |access-date=January 25, 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Pilot Neil Armstrong and X-15 -1 - GPN-2000-000121.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A black-and-white photo of Armstrong, with very short hair. He is smiling and is wearing a pressure suit and tall lace-up boots. Under his left arm he holds a bulky pressure helmet. He has black gloves on, and his right-hand rests on the nose of a dark-painted X-15 rocket plane with its canopy open. Armstrong and the plane are standing on a desert crust, and the plane's skids have left tracks in it.|Armstrong and [[North American X-15|X-15-1]] after a research flight in 1960]]

Fellow astronaut [[Michael Collins (astronaut)|Michael Collins]] wrote that of the X-15 pilots Armstrong "had been considered one of the weaker stick-and-rudder men, but the very best when it came to understanding the machine's design and how it operated".{{sfn|Collins|2001|pp=314}} Many of the test pilots at Edwards praised Armstrong's engineering ability. [[Milton Orville Thompson|Milt Thompson]] said he was "the most technically capable of the early X-15 pilots". [[Bill Dana (pilot)|Bill Dana]] said Armstrong "had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge". Those who flew for the Air Force tended to have a different opinion, especially people like [[Chuck Yeager]] and [[William J. Knight|Pete Knight]], who did not have engineering degrees. Knight said that pilot-engineers flew in a way that was "more mechanical than it is flying", and gave this as the reason why some pilot-engineers got into trouble: Their flying skills did not come naturally.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=138–139}} Armstrong made seven [[List of X-15 flights|flights in the X-15]] between November 30, 1960, and July 26, 1962.{{sfn|Jenkins|2000|pp=118–121}} He reached a top speed of Mach 5.74 ({{convert|3989|mph|0|abbr=on|disp=comma}}) in the X-15-1, and left the Flight Research Center with a total of 2,400 flying hours.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|p=210}}

On April 24, 1962, Armstrong flew for the only time with Yeager. Their job, flying a T-33, was to evaluate Smith Ranch Dry Lake in Nevada for use as an emergency landing site for the X-15. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. As they attempted a [[Touch-and-go landing|touch-and-go]], the wheels became stuck and they had to wait for rescue. As Armstrong told the story, Yeager never tried to talk him out of it and they made a first successful landing on the east side of the lake. Then Yeager told him to try again, this time a bit slower. On the second landing, they became stuck, provoking Yeager to fits of laughter.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=184–189}}

On May 21, 1962, Armstrong was involved in the "Nellis Affair". He was sent in an F-104 to inspect [[Delamar Dry Lake]] in southern Nevada, again for emergency landings. He misjudged his altitude and did not realize that the landing gear had not fully extended. As he touched down, the landing gear began to retract; Armstrong applied full power to abort the landing, but the ventral fin and landing gear door struck the ground, damaging the radio and releasing [[hydraulic fluid]]. Without radio communication, Armstrong flew south to [[Nellis Air Force Base]], past the control tower, and waggled his wings, the signal for a no-radio approach. The loss of hydraulic fluid caused the [[tailhook]] to release, and upon landing, he caught the arresting wire attached to an anchor chain, and dragged the chain along the runway.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=189–192}}

It took thirty minutes to clear the runway and rig another arresting cable. Armstrong telephoned Edwards and asked for someone to collect him. Milt Thompson was sent in an F-104B, the only two-seater available, but a plane Thompson had never flown. With great difficulty, Thompson made it to Nellis, where a strong crosswind caused a hard landing and the left main tire suffered a blowout. The runway was again closed to clear it, and Bill Dana was sent to Nellis in a T-33, but he almost landed long. The Nellis base operations office then decided that to avoid any further problems, it would be best to find the three NASA pilots ground transport back to Edwards.{{sfn|Hansen|2005|pp=189–192}}