Jack Woolams

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Jack Valentine Woolams
Bell Aircraft chief test pilot Jack Woolams (1943)
Born(1917-02-14)February 14, 1917
San Francisco, California
DiedAugust 30, 1946(1946-08-30) (aged 29)
Lake Ontario
Cause of deathPlane crash
NationalityAmerican
Known forTest pilot
Aviation career
Famous flightsFirst pilot to fly the Bell X-1

Jack Valentine Woolams (1917–1946) was the senior experimental test pilot and later chief test pilot at

P-59, and X-1
aircraft. He set a world record for altitude and was the first person to fly a fighter jet non-stop across the United States.

Early life

Woolams was born on February 14, 1917 (Valentine's Day), to Leonard and Elsa Woolams in San Francisco, California, and raised in the suburb of Ross, California.[1] Woolams attended the University of Chicago for two years before joining the United States Army Air Corps. He served on active duty for approximately eighteen months, after which he returned to the University of Chicago and graduated with a degree in economics in June 1941.

Career and flight records

After college, Woolams was hired by

test flight division to the experimental research division. Woolams became chief test pilot when Stanley was promoted to vice president of engineering.[2] In September 1942, he became the first person to fly a fighter aircraft coast to coast over the United States without stopping.[3]
In the summer of 1943, he set a new
Pinecastle Army Airfield in Orlando, Florida. Woolams was originally scheduled to fly the X-1 faster than the speed of sound,[5] but that honor would go to Chuck Yeager
.

Personality

Woolams was known as a bit of a practical joker. While flying the still unknown experimental

gorilla mask, bowler hat, and cigar, and then fly away leaving them behind.[6][7]

Death and legacy

Woolams died on August 30, 1946, in the crash of the modified P-39 Cobra I race-plane during a practice flight for the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio, that were to occur the next day. Woolams flew the Cobra I from Cleveland back to Bell Aircraft in Niagara Falls on August 29, after obtaining a disappointing qualifying speed of 392 miles per hour (631 km/h). Woolams was testing the plane over Lake Ontario late in the afternoon at speeds over 400 miles per hour (640 km/h) when it suddenly and inexplicably crashed into the water, breaking apart upon impact. His body was recovered four days later.[3] After the wreckage of Cobra I was recovered, it was believed a canopy failure was the cause of the crash and Woolams' death,[2] however, eyewitnesses on the ground claimed to have seen the tail separate from the aircraft, causing the crash.[5]

There was internal debate at

Tex Johnston, insisted that Woolams would have raced if it was the other way around.[2] The day after Woolams' death, Johnston went on to win the 1946 Thompson Trophy in the Cobra II, the identical twin of Cobra I.[2]

References

  1. ^ "United States Census, 1930". FamilySearch.com. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-56098-013-3
    .
  3. ^ a b "X-1 Biographies". NASA. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
  4. ^ "Jack Woolams Establishes an Altitude Record". Edwards Air Force Base. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  5. ^ a b Feinen, Edward N. (August 31, 1946). "Test Pilot Killed in Plane Crash". Indianapolis Times. Vol. 57, no. 149. p. 3. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  6. ISBN 978-0-275-99355-9 – via Google Books
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-316-19385-6
    .

External links

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government

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