Home of the North American Eagle - World Land Speed Challenger

February 25, 2004

Ladies & Gentlemen:

56-0763 in chase position with airframe #1

Thirty nine years ago today, the picture above was taken at Edwards Air Force Base in California. As the project begins to gain national and international attention, the story behind 56-0763 seems to get more and more interesting for the North American Eagle™ world land speed record challenger.

Tony Landis at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center was researching Lockheed's archives when he ran across the photo above, taken on February 25, 1965. In this photo, 763 can be seen parked behind SR-71 airframe # 1 in waiting as a chase for its maiden flight. When at a test session on El Mirage lake bed in 2006, Bob Gilliland was present to watch our activities. He informed us that he was flying airframe #1 that day in 1964, and had flown our aircraft many times when it was his turn to fly chase.

The above image was found on Bob Gilliland's web site showing airframe #! on its maiden flight with 56-0763 flying the chase aircraft position. Notice in the lower right-hand corner is Kelly Johnson's handwritten note to Bob congratulating him. (Click on image for large view.)

Tony has been following the teams progress since the very beginning. Co-Author of several books, Tony is always on the look out for us when photos of 763 surface in his research. Here are just a few of the many books Tony has been a part of.

North American X B-70A Valkyrie (Warbird Tech Series, Volume 34)

Hypersonic: The Story of the North American X-15

X-15 Photo Scrapbook

Lockheed Ah-56a Cheyenne (Warbird Tech Series, Volume 27)

Lockheed NF-104A Aerospace Trainer (Air Force Legends Number 204)

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