Bruce Peterson

Bruce A. Peterson
Naval aviator, test pilot
Awards	NASA Exceptional Leadership Award Tony LeVier Flight Test Safety Award
Space career
NASA Research / Test Pilot
Missions	none

Bruce A. Peterson (May 23, 1933 – May 1, 2006) was an American

.

Biography

Early life and education

Peterson was born on May 23, 1933. A native of

Aeronautical Engineering

from Cal Poly in 1960.

Flight experience and NASA career

Following attending UCLA, Peterson enlisted as a

) program. He made his first Paresev research flight on March 14, 1962. He was injured when the craft crashed from a height of about 10 feet (3 m) during a ground tow flight. Always the consummate engineer, his first question after impact was, "What happened to the lateral stick forces?"

As a NASA research pilot, he flew a wide variety of airplanes, including the

.

On May 10, 1967, during the sixteenth glide flight of a lifting body Northrop M2-F2, a landing accident severely damaged the vehicle and seriously injured Peterson. After an extensive hospitalization, he recovered from his injuries but lost sight in one eye due to a secondary infection while in the hospital. He also made 17 NASA M2-F1, 2 other M2-F2 and 1 Northrop HL-10 lifting body flights.

Portions of M2-F2 footage including Peterson's spectacular crash landing were used for the 1973

Peterson complained he disliked having his accident repeatedly replayed on television so often.

Despite his injuries, Peterson continued to fly NASA support missions, occasional research flights and continued his Marine Reserve flying duties until 1971. During his flying career, Peterson logged more than 6,000 flight hours in nearly 70 types of aircraft.

Peterson continued at Dryden as a research project engineer on the

Fly-By-Wire

program of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He later assumed responsibility for safety and quality assurance for Dryden until his retirement in 1981.

Post-NASA career

He then joined the

, becoming manager of system safety and human factors.

Later life and death

Peterson resided in Orange County, California, and Ocean Springs, California, until his death on May 1, 2006, at age 72, after a long illness.^[2]

Organizations and special honors

Peterson was a fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and 2002 recipient of the Tony LeVier Flight Test Safety Award. He was honored by NASA with an Exceptional Leadership Award for his work on preparations for the first Space Shuttle landing at NASA Dryden in April 1981. In 2003 he was inducted into the Lancaster, California Aerospace Walk of Honor.

References

External links

• Peterson bio at Astronautix.com
• Peterson bio at NASA
• Boston Globe article