>>He was quiet.

He was a man of many talents.

Radio chatter

He was also a good friend.

>>He started flying when he was 16, and in his mid-20's

he had already had more than 70 combat flights, had bailed out.

Prop plane flyby

>>Willing to tackle anything.

The best engineering test pilot I ever worked with.

He flew absolutely impeccably.

>>He took me on my first supersonic ride in a 104.

Jet engine

It was the greatest flight I ever had.

Radio chatter

Music

>>Every time an airplane flew over, he would look up at it.

Music

>>Pull!

Applause

>>While we are changing our name,

the work we do remains consistent.

We fly, we explore, we measure, we reveal, and we discover

the overlooked and unexpected for the benefit of the nation,

and for the benefit of human kind.

>>I'm going to ride off into the sunrise.

Jets taking off

>>836, left 3 degrees.

>>Copy.

>>Okay we have got lock.

>>Lock conditions.

Camera shutter

Jet engine

>>.95 run complete.

>Copy .95 shown here, run complete.

>>Mission controller, this is flight on data one,

we are ready for the supersonic run.

Sonic boom

>>High speed research, is hopefully at one point

in time, going to allow supersonic flight

commercially over the U.S. and throughout the world.

Jet plane flying

Music

Aircraft taking off

>>Traffic, Traffic, Descend, Speed Up

>>12 o'clock, 5 miles northbound, Navajo, 8,500

November 02 Sierra, traffic 2 o'clock

Radio chatter

>>Visual about 3.2 he's spot on perfect.

>>Lift off initial climb mission phase.

>>Pilot, monitor and verify guidance,

advise when in normal flight.

>>Passing through 10,000.

Prop plane flying

>>Phantom 02, gear is cycling.

>>Yep, it looks good to me.

>>Perfect!

>>Prandtl is the closest to bird flight

that humans have ever gotten as far as aircraft goes.

Not having a vertical tail would decrease the drag

of an aircraft immensely.

Wind

Music

Radio telemetry clicks

>>You guys made history today.

No one has ever proven that vortices go anywhere

except at the wing tip.

Music

Prop plane

>>We're at 50 knots.

Rotor blades

Clacking

>>The fiber optic systems tells us how much the wing

is bending in real time. This technology eventually should

be applied to completely flexible wings,

that's the future.

Music

>>The new flaps have promised to be lighter,

more efficient, and also quieter. More like a bird,

morph without any use of hinges and joints and things like that.

Music

Jet engine revving up

Jet engine taxiing

>>10 seconds...brakes, now.

Jet plane taking off

>>We are going to continue ahead here

for about another couple of miles,

just to check out the airplane, before we make a turn.

Music

Jet airplane flying

>>Steady heading side slip to the left first,

we will hold for 10 seconds and try to get about half over.

Our pitch stability is good, roll and yaw.

>>Runway is clear, you are go for takeoff.

>>All of the airborne science aircraft; from the ER-2,

to the C-20, to DC-8, to Global Hawk, they all play

an important role.

>>Are you guys ready?

>>Ready.

>>Start Recording.

>>OK, stop recording.

>>What are our temperatures?

>>34, 33, 38...

Jet plane taking off

Music

>>Hopefully we will get some really good

science data from this that will help the community.

>>I have got rising terrain, 12o'clock, 7 miles from

>>Tally-ho, and I am going to start climbing here.

>>Clear.

>>We're clear.

Music

Airplane interior

>>Alright it looks like it is at wings level and we're on course

Music

Jet plane flying

>>Chief Scientist how is your flight?

>>It was great.

Music

Jet flying low

High altitute airplane gunning engine

Cockpit ambience

Music

UAV taking off

>>Woo-hoo!

747 taking off

>>I, myself, have learned so much just about the process

of science, and that in itself is something

you can bring back to the classroom.

Music

>>FIFI is an imaging spectrometer

in the far infrared.

We can reach wavelengths that other instruments cannot reach.

Background hangar maintenance

>>Inflatable systems allow us to build bigger heat shields

that decelerate larger masses so that we can support

the systems that are required for human space exploration.

Music

Prop plane taking off

>>Tower, NASA UAS airborne, UAS work area surface to

2,000 feet.

Radio chatter

Prop plane flying

>>Release!

Music

Prop plane flying

Rocket launch

>>Green light, green light, green light, nearest 1 0

Music

Prop plane flying

>>And lift off at dawn, the dawn of Orion

Applause