X-2's Flight: Triumph and Tragedy

At five-thirty on the morning of September 27, 1956, the alarm clock jangled harshly on the bedside table of Capt. Milburn Grant Apt, thirty-two, a senior test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Apt shook himself awake and dressed hurriedly. He had good reason: this day was the high point of his flying career. After many long months of anxious waiting, pleading, and prayerful hope, he had at last been detailed to fly the most advanced airplane in the Free World: the Bell X-2 rocket ship. This remarkable craft had already brought great fame to two other Edwards test pilots: Lt. Col. Frank â??Peteâ? Everest, who established a worldâ??s speed record of 1,900 mph, and Capt. Iven Kincheloe, who had stood the X-2 practically on end, and blazed his way to 126,000 feet altitudeâ??to the edge of space.