John Barron McKay
John Barron McKay was a United States Navy veteran, aeronautical engineer, NASA research pilot, and X-15 pilot whose career belongs to the boundary between aircraft test flying and astronautics. He did not fly an orbital spacecraft, but one of his X-15 flights crossed the United States altitude standard for astronaut qualification.
- Born
- December 8, 1922
- Died
- April 27, 1975
- Birthplace
- Portsmouth, Virginia,United States
Flights
1
Spacewalks
N/A
EVA time
N/A
In space
Suborbital X-15 spaceflight; duration not listed in source data
Bio
McKay served as a naval aviator during World War II and later earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Virginia Tech. He joined NACA, NASA's predecessor, and became one of the pilots flying high-speed research aircraft at Edwards, including the D-558 series and the X-15.
His X-15 career was marked by both achievement and injury. In 1962, an emergency landing destroyed the X-15-2 and left him with serious back injuries. He returned to flight status and later flew X-15 Flight 150 to 295,600 feet, qualifying as an astronaut by the United States 50-mile standard.
McKay retired from NASA in 1971 and died in 1975.