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25-618: The FAI Gold Air Medal was established in 1924 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and was first awarded in 1925. This award and the Paul Tissander Diploma are the FAI's two highest awards. It is reserved for those who have contributed greatly to the development of aeronautics by their activities, work, achievements, initiative or devotion to

50-464: A North American XB-70 Valkyrie . At an altitude of about 25,000 ft (7.6 km) Walker's Starfighter was one of five aircraft in a tight group formation for a General Electric publicity photo when his F-104 drifted into contact with the XB-70's right wingtip. The F-104 flipped over, and, rolling inverted, passed over the top of the XB-70, striking both its vertical stabilizers and its left wing in

75-452: A total flight time of just under one minute. He piloted 35 LLRV flights in total. Neil Armstrong later flew this craft many times in preparation for the spaceflight of Apollo 11 – the first human landing on the Moon – including crashing it once and barely escaping from it with his ejection seat. Walker was killed on June 8, 1966, when his F-104N Starfighter chase aircraft collided with

100-545: Is a member of FAI may recommend a number of deserving candidates for the diploma each year; the U.S. is allowed three. The recipients are confirmed by the FAI Administrative Council and publicly announced and the Diplomas are awarded at the annual FAI General Conference. Notable recipients include: Joseph A. Walker Joseph Albert Walker (February 20, 1921 – June 8, 1966) ( Capt , USAF )

125-912: The Distinguished Flying Cross once, awarded by General Nathan Twining in July 1944, and the Air Medal with seven oak leaf clusters . After World War II, Walker separated from the Army Air Forces and joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio , as an experimental physicist. While in Cleveland, Walker became a test pilot, and he conducted icing research in flight, as well as in

150-643: The Douglas D-558-I Skystreak #3 (14 flights), Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket #2 (three flights), D-558-II #3 (two flights), Douglas X-3 Stiletto (20 flights), Northrop X-4 Bantam (two flights), and Bell X-5 (78 flights). Walker was the chief project pilot for the X-3 program. Walker reportedly considered the X-3 to be the worst airplane that he ever flew. In addition to research aircraft, Walker flew many chase planes during test flights of other aircraft, and he also flew in programs that involved

175-860: The Iven C. Kincheloe Award , the John J. Montgomery Award , and the Octave Chanute Award . His alma mater awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Aeronautical Sciences degree in 1961. He received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1962. The National Pilots Association named him Pilot of the Year in 1963. In 1964, Walker was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . Walker

200-580: The North American F-100 Super Sabre , McDonnell F-101 Voodoo , Convair F-102 Delta Dagger , Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and Boeing B-47 Stratojet . In 1958, Walker was one of the pilots selected for the U.S. Air Force's Man In Space Soonest (MISS) project, but that project never came to fruition. That same year, NACA became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and in 1960, Walker became

225-684: The Saint-Cyr-l'École airfield was named in his honour. The Paul Tissandier Diploma is a perpetual international award established in 1952 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in memory of Tissandier who was Treasurer of the FAI from its foundation to 1919 and its Secretary General from 1913 to 1945. The diplomas are awarded to those persons who have served the cause of aviation and private and sporting aviation in particular, by their work, initiative, devotion or other endeavours. Each Aero club which

250-789: The NACA icing wind tunnel. He transferred to the High-Speed Flight Research Station in Edwards, California , in 1951. Walker served for 15 years at the Edwards Flight Research Facility – now called the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center . By the mid-1950s, he was a Chief Research Pilot. Walker worked on several pioneering research projects. He flew in three versions of the Bell X-1 :

275-590: The United States definition of the boundary of space . The latter two, X-15 Flights 90 and 91 , also surpassed the Kármán line , the internationally accepted boundary of 100 kilometers (62.14 miles). Making the latter flights immediately after the completion of the Mercury and Vostok programs, Walker became the first person to fly to space twice. He was the only X-15 pilot to fly above 100 km during

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300-571: The X-1#2 (two flights, first on August 27, 1951), X-1A (one flight), X-1E (21 flights). When Walker attempted a second flight in the X-1A on August 8, 1955, the rocket aircraft was damaged in an explosion just before being launched from the JTB-29A mothership . Walker was unhurt, though, and he climbed back into the mothership with the X-1A subsequently jettisoned. Other research aircraft that he flew were

325-455: The XB-70, the F-104 pilot would not have been able to see the XB-70's wing, except by uncomfortably looking back over his left shoulder. The report stated that it was likely that Walker, piloting the F-104, maintained his position by looking at the fuselage of the XB-70, forward of his position. The F-104 was estimated to be 70 ft (20 m) to the side of, and 10 ft (3 m) below,

350-5311: The cause of aviation. Winners [ edit ] Date Name Country 1925 Francesco de Pinedo Italy 1926 Alan Cobham United Kingdom 1927 Charles Lindbergh USA 1928 Bert Hinkler Australia 1929 Dieudonné Costes France 1930 Italo Balbo Italy 1931 Hugo Eckener Germany 1932 Juan de la Cierva Spain 1933 Wiley Post USA 1934 C. W. A. Scott United Kingdom 1935 not awarded 1936 Jean Mermoz France 1937 Jean Batten United Kingdom 1938 not awarded 1939 not awarded 1940 not awarded 1941 not awarded 1942 not awarded 1943 not awarded 1944 not awarded 1945 not awarded 1946 Igor Sikorsky USA 1947 Chuck Yeager USA 1948 not awarded 1949 not awarded 1950 Frank Whittle United Kingdom 1951 Edward P. Warner USA 1952 not awarded 1953 Jacqueline Cochran USA 1954 James Doolittle USA 1955 Maurice Hurel France 1956 Peter Twiss United Kingdom 1957 David G. Simons USA 1958 Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev USSR 1959 Pierre Satre France 1960 Yuri Gagarin USSR 1961 Geoffrey De Havilland United Kingdom 1962 not awarded 1963 Jacqueline Auriol France 1964 Vladimir Kokkinaki USSR 1965 Robert L. Stephens USA 1966 Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev USSR 1967 Joseph A. Walker USA 1968 Sergey Ilyushin USSR 1969 José Luis Aresti Aguirre Spain 1970 Dick Merrill USA 1971 Elgen Long USA 1972 Marina Popovich USSR 1973 Don Anderson Australia 1974 Aleksandr Vasilyevich Fedotov USSR 1975 Curtis Pitts USA 1976 Sholto Hamilton Georgeson New Zealand 1977 Michael Murphy (aviator) USA 1978 Hans Werner Grosse Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Paul Maccready USA 1980 Ann Welch United Kingdom 1981 Jean-Pierre Freiburghaus Switzerland 1982 Paul Poberezny USA 1983 Jan Mikula (engineer) Czechoslovakia 1984 J. R. D. Tata India 1985 Ralph Paul Alex USA 1986 Semyon Kharlamov USSR 1987 Henry Kremer United Kingdom 1988 August Christov Kabaktchiev Bulgaria 1989 George Alfred "Peter" Lloyd Australia 1990 Sabiha Gökcen Turkey 1991 Kyung O Kim South Korea 1992 Cenek Kepak Slovakia 1993 Olavi Rautio Finland 1994 Scott Crossfield USA 1995 Hanspeter Hirzel Switzerland 1996 Alexander Pimenoff Finland 1997 Attila Taçoy Turkey 1998 not awarded 1999 Bertrand Piccard Switzerland 1999 Brian Jones United Kingdom 2000 Eilif Ness Cyprus 2001 not awarded 2002 Steve Fossett USA 2003 not awarded 2004 Jon Johanson Australia 2005 Richard Meredith-Hardy United Kingdom 2006 Victor Smolin Russia 2007 Eugene Cernan USA 2008 Jiří Kobrle Czech Republic 2009 Barron Hilton USA 2010 David Hempleman-Adams United Kingdom 2011 John Dickenson (aviator) Australia 2012 Mikhail Mamistov Russia 2014 William Moyes Australia 2015 Hans Åkerstedt Sweden 2016 not awarded 2017 not awarded 2018 not awarded 2019 Domina Jalbert USA 2020 Hermann Trimmel Austria 2021 not awarded 2022 not awarded 2023 not awarded 2024 Sebastian Kawa Poland See also [ edit ] List of aviation awards References [ edit ] ^ Cowan, Cliff (September 22, 1975). "World's Fliers Drop Into Ottawa" . The Ottawa Journal . Ottawa, Ontario. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com. ^ "FAI General and Individual Awards 2023" (PDF) . fai.org . August 31, 2023 . Retrieved August 26, 2024 . THE FAI GOLD AIR MEDAL [...] Not awarded External links [ edit ] List of awards on FAI site Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FAI_Gold_Air_Medal&oldid=1258803809 " Categories : Aviation awards Awards established in 1924 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Paul Tissandier Tissandier

375-459: The first NASA pilot to fly the X-15, and the second X-15 pilot, following Scott Crossfield , the manufacturer's test pilot. On his first X-15 flight, Walker did not realize how much power its rocket engines had, and he was crushed backward into the pilot's seat, screaming, "Oh, my God!". Then, a flight controller jokingly replied "Yes? You called?" Walker would go on to fly the X-15 25 times, including

400-546: The first flight of a human into the mesosphere , Flight 35 , and the only two flights that exceeded 100 kilometres (62 miles) in altitude, Flight 90 (on July 19, 1963: 106 km (66 mi)) and Flight 91 (on August 22, 1963: 108 km (67 mi)). Walker was the first American civilian to make any spaceflight, and the second civilian overall, preceded only by the Soviet Union 's cosmonaut , Valentina Tereshkova one month earlier. Flights 90 and 91 made Walker

425-617: The first human to make multiple spaceflights according to the FAI definition of greater than 100 km (62 mi). Flight 77 on January 17, 1963 also qualified Walker as an astronaut, according to the US Department of Defense definition of greater than 50 mi (80 km). Walker flew at his highest speed in the X-15A-1: 4,104 mph (6,605 km/h) ( Mach 5.92) during Flight 59 on June 27, 1962 (the fastest flight in any of

450-484: The fuselage of the XB-70. The report concluded that from that position, without appropriate sight cues, Walker was unable to properly perceive his motion relative to the Valkyrie, leading to his aircraft drifting into contact with the XB-70's wing. The accident investigation also pointed to the wake vortex off the XB-70's right wingtip as the reason for the F-104's sudden roll over and into the bomber. A sixth plane in

475-599: The incident was a civilian Learjet 23 that held the photographer. Because the formation flight and photo were unauthorized, the careers of several Air Force colonels ended as a result of this aviation accident. Walker was a charter member and one of the first Fellows of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots . He received the Robert J. Collier Trophy , the Harmon International Trophy for Aviators ,

500-539: The process, and exploded, killing Walker. The Valkyrie entered an uncontrollable spin and crashed into the ground north of Barstow, California, killing co-pilot Carl Cross. Its pilot, Alvin White , one of Walker's colleagues from the Man In Space Soonest program, ejected and was the sole survivor. The USAF summary report of the accident investigation stated that, given the position of the F-104 relative to

525-753: The program. Walker died in a group formation accident on June 8, 1966. Born in Washington, Pennsylvania , Walker graduated from Trinity High School in 1938. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Washington and Jefferson College in 1942, before entering the United States Army Air Forces. He was married and had four children. During World War II, Walker flew the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter and F-5A Lightning photo aircraft (a modified P-38) on weather reconnaissance flights. Walker earned

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550-567: The three X-15s was about 4,520 mph (7,274 km/h) (Mach 6.7) during Flight 188 flown by William J. Knight on October 3, 1967). Walker also became the first test pilot of the Bell Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), which was used to develop piloting and operational techniques for lunar landings. On October 30, 1964, Walker took the LLRV on its maiden flight, reaching an altitude of about 10 ft and

575-611: Was an American World War II pilot , experimental physicist , NASA test pilot , and astronaut who was the first person to fly an airplane to space. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15 , an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA. In 1961, Walker became the first human in the mesosphere when piloting Flight 35 , and in 1963, Walker made three flights above 50 miles, thereby qualifying as an astronaut according to

600-751: Was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in 1991, and the International Space Hall of Fame in 1995. Joe Walker Middle School in Quartz Hill, California , is named in his honor as well as the Joe Walker Elementary School in Washington, Pennsylvania. On August 23, 2005, NASA officially conferred on Walker his Astronaut Wings , posthumously. Star Trek starship designer John Eaves created

625-403: Was the son of aviator Gaston Tissandier and nephew of Albert Tissandier , Gaston's brother. Tissandier began his flying career as a hot air balloon pilot and later moved to airships and finally to airplanes . He was a pilot-pupil of Wilbur Wright . Together with Count Charles de Lambert , he was involved in the construction of hydro-gliders. The Aero Club Paul Tissandier based at

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