Dana

Personal data:

Birthdate:  03 Nov 1930 Birthplace:  Pasadena / California, US Marital status:  married Children  four Selection date:  00.00.1965 Selection group:  1960 Dyna-Soar Group 1 Job:  PLT Status:  Ret. 24 Oct 1968 Date of death:  06 May 2014 Age:  83 Place of death:  Phoenix, Arizona, US

NASA research pilot Bill Dana stay here next to the X-15 #3 rocket-powered aircraft after a flight.

Suborbital Spaceflights (above 80 km):

Bill Dana with the HL-10 lifting body, NASA 804. (NASA E-20168).

The X-15 flight crew, left to right: Air Force Captain Joseph H. Engle, Air Force Major Robert A. Rushworth, NASA pilot John B. McKay, Air Force Major William J. Knight, NASA pilot Milton O. Thompson, and NASA pilot Bill Dana.

Additional information

• William Harvey Dana was born 3 November 1930 at Pasadena, California, the first of two children of Harvey Drexler Dana, a geologist, and Rose Frances Jourdan Dana. (Sister, Antoinette). Dana grew up in Bakersfield, California. He graduated from Bakersfield High School in 1948.
• Bill Dana received an appointment as a cadet at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York,. He graduated 1952 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. Lieutenant Dana served until 1956.
• He joined NASA on October 1, 1958, after receiving a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
• On 1 October 1958, Dana began as 40-year career at the NASA High-Speed Flight Station, Edwards Air Force Base, California, as an Aeronautical Research Engineer. (This was the day that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established, making Dana the first new employee to be hired by NASA). He was assigned to work on an X-15 performance simulator, and also to the North American XF-107 stability research program.
• In September 1959, Bill Dana transferred to the Flight Operations Branch. One of his early projects was the North American Aviation JF-100C variable stability research aircraft.
• IN 1962 Bill Dana married Miss Judi Miller. They would have four children, Sidney, Matt, Janet, and Leslie.
• From 1960 through 1962 he was a pilot astronaut in the U.S. Air Force X-20 Dyna-Soar program. That program was canceled before the vehicle flew, but Dana later tested several other lifting-body space vehicle projects. He made one of the earliest flights in the plywood M2-F1, and flew the HL-10, the M2-F3, and the X-24B. He made the highest-ever flight in a lifting body, to 90,303 feet, in the HL-10. He also made the final powered flight of a lifting body, in the X-24B (1975).
• Dana began as an engineer on the North American X-15 program. He progressed to chase pilot, and finally as project pilot on the hypersonic research aircraft. He flew the rocket-powered vehicle 16 times, reaching a top speed of 3,897 mph. His peak altitude of 307,000 feet (nearly 59 miles high) technically qualified him for the Astronaut Badge, although he was not formally recognized as an astronaut until 2005. He was the pilot on the final (199th) flight of the 10-year program.
• In the late 1960s and in the 1970s, Dana was a project pilot on the manned lifting body program, which flew several versions of the wingless vehicles and produced data that helped in development of the Space Shuttle. He completed one NASA M2-F1, nine Northrop HL-10, nineteen Northrop M2-F3 and two Martin Marietta X-24B flights, for a total of 31 lifting body missions.
• Dana was Chief Engineer at NASA′s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, from 1993 until 1998, when he retired after almost 40 years of distinguished service to NASA. Formerly an aerospace research pilot, Dana flew the F-100 variable stability research aircraft and the Advanced Fighter Technology Integration/F-16 aircraft, as well as many others.
• Before his assignment as Chief Engineer, he was Assistant Chief of the Flight Operations Division, a position he assumed after serving since 1986 as Chief Pilot. He was also a project pilot on the F-15 HIDEC (Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Control) research program, and a co-project pilot on the F-18 Hornet High Angle of Attack research program.
• As a research pilot, Dana was involved in some of the most significant aeronautical programs carried out at Dryden. For his service as a flight research pilot, he received NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1997. In 2000 he was awarded the Milton O. Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dryden Flight Research Center.
• Dana died in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 6, 2014, following a long struggle with Parkinson′s disease. He was 83 years of age.