Joe Sylvia wrote:

Don,

    This is Joe Sylvia, Erv Smalley sent me a copy of your e-mail. I was GD/Convair's Tech Rep at

McClellan, AFB at that time frame. We sent an F-106B model to Edwards (which I thought it went

to Boeing) however, I found out some time ago it went to Edwards. The purpose was to simulate

the Dynasoar re-entry vehicle being designed by Boeing. From my recollection the B Model was

going to climb to 85,000 ft, then perform the re-entry procedure. I could not remember the serial

number of the B Model but this could be the one--57-2529.

    Do you recall your program being associated with the Dynasoar program? The Dynasoar was

similar to the present day Shuttle. About a year later the  program was abruptly cancelled.

    Cheers,

         Joe Sylvia

Joe and Erv,

I am sure 57-2529 or its sister ship 57-2519 (the tail number shown in the attached photos) are the airplanes you associate with the Dynasoar program.  A few years before I joined the staff at ARPS in 1968 the School had initiated an addition to the curriculum to train pilots for both the X-20 and the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL).  Selected ARPS faculty developed the curriculum, wrote some of the training materials, installed a docking simulator (the T-27), and trained the initial cadre for this mission in ARPS Class I.  I am attaching some photos I finally dug up from two of my "commemoration annuals" (from the 35th and the 50th anniversaries of the establishment of the Test Pilot School at Edwards).  They are rather poor quality scanned images that I have tried to "doctor" a little with amateurish work in Corel PhotoPaint.  But they do show that ARPS had the two NF-106B airplanes and that we flew them a little.  The narrative words in the second of these annuals explains how the NF-106 VST airplanes performed and why they were removed from service and also how the political decision regarding the US military utilization of space effectively killed the reason for having this kind of curriculum at the ARPS (later renamed TPS).  The government just decided NASA was to have the whole of manned space activity in the late 1960s and it was unacceptable to have such a military training program in place.  So we reverted to being the USAF Test Pilot School, lost our USAF space training curriculum and facilities, and all test pilots who pursued a career as an astronaut were detailed to NASA.

Joe, the variable stability profiles we flew in the NF-106B included lifting bodies, Space Shuttle emulations, and X-15 profiles.  The airplane could be reconfigured in the air (by the front seat safety pilot) to do different profiles.  Not all of the training was done in a pressure suit; in fact most of it was not, though, of course, any climb to 85,000 feet would have necessitated a pressure suit.  My best recollection is that about the only time we "suited up" was for the NF-104 profiles.  My one flight in the NF-106B included nothing more than relatively low altitude, low-speed handling exercises.  Major (Dr.) Ed Merkl was the front seat safety pilot for my flight and he was the project officer looking after the NF-106 part of our curriculum. 

BTW, as to tail numbers, the photos verify that 57-2519 was one of the two NF-106Bs that went to ARPS; it could be that I transcribed the wrong tail number in my flight log book.  I had an entry for 57-2529; you and Erv probably have better information on which tail numbers were involved than I do.  In any event, by the time I was on the staff at ARPS, only one NF-106B was flying.  If my log book entry is correct, it was 57-2529.   One of the captions in the 35th Anniversary "annual" says the first NF-106B arrived at Edwards in March 1968 and the second in May 1968 (from the modifications done at Martin's Baltimore facility).  This same caption notes that these aircraft were "retired in Oct 1971" after flying very little (too many maintenance problems).

Hope this additional bit is helpful to your web site; keep up the good work.