Arthur Warren "Kit" Murray was a
United States test pilot died from Alzheimer's disease he was , 92. He flew test flights on the
Bell X-1 and the
Bell X-5 aircraft.
(December 26, 1918 – July 25, 2011)
Early life
Arthur Warren Murray was born to Charles C. "Chester" and Elsie Murray in the small town of
Cresson nestled in the
Allegheny Mountains of
Pennsylvania on December 26, 1918.
Military career
With
World War II already underway in
Europe, he joined the
United States Army in 1939, and served in the
Cavalry. Kit volunteered for pilot training the day after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and by 1943 was flying the
P-40 as a fighter pilot in
Africa. His unit worked its way across the continent from
Casablanca to
Tunisia, escorting
B-25,
B-26 and
A-20 bombers as well as performing
dive bombing and
strafing missions. His unit was proud to never have lost a bomber to enemy fighters while under their escort.
Test Piloting
After a year tour in Africa, Kit returned to the
United States. as a
P-47 instructor at
Bradley Field near
Hartford,
Connecticut. He was then assigned as a maintenance flight test pilot and sent to Maintenance Engineering School at
Chanute Air Force Base. After completion of that school his commander found out about the Flight Test School at
Wright Field and decided to send him there. Here was where Kit got his big break as he quickly found out this school was not for functional test flights, but for experimental test programs. He kept his mouth shut and stuck with the program, and soon was offered the opportunity to be the first permanent test pilot to be assigned to Muroc Airfield (later
Edwards Air Force Base) in the
California desert. Until then, pilots were based at the Wright Field Test Center and assigned TDY as needed to Muroc.
Chuck Yeager was making such trips out there from the Test Center while he was flying the
Bell X-1 on the first
supersonic test flights. In early tests Kit was able to fly some of America’s earliest jet aircraft including the
Bell XP-59 and the
P-80. He also flew the
P-51,
P-82,
F-84,
B-25,
B-43,
B-45 and many other fighter and bomber aircraft.
Kit flight tested the
X-1A and X-1B, the
X-4, the
X-5,
[2] and also flew the
XF-92A.
[3] In the X-1A, Kit set altitude records of over 90,000 feet
[4] and was considered at the time, 1954, America’s first space pilot. He was the first to see the curvature of the earth and the sky dark at mid-day.
[5] The X-1A was powered by four rocket motors using liquid oxygen and alcohol as fuel. Looking rather exotic even in photos today, the X-1 used nitrogen tanks to pressurize many of the systems including the fuel tanks, cockpit and the landing gear system. However, the flight controls were completely conventional with strictly mechanical linkage and no hydraulic boost.
The X-1A was launched from the belly of a B-29 and later a B-50, and the flight profile had him using a 45 degree
pitch attitude with airspeeds reaching about
Mach 2. On his first couple of high altitude flights, Kit said his plane would snap into a spin when the motors burned out while approaching his peak altitude. He finally figured that the rocket motors were installed very slightly offset which, to keep it going straight, was causing him to have to cross control the plane increasingly as it accelerated. When the engines shut off, the cross-control condition, which was keeping the airplane from
yawing, now became the perfect spin entry input.
After two flights involving supersonic spin recovery, Kit was quick to neutralize the controls immediately upon motor shutdown in later flights. He had taped a string in front of the windshield to determine his rudder trim input. Kit was the first pilot to fly the X1-B aircraft in powered flight, and he said it was a much straighter flying rocket ship than the X-1A. The X-4 he flew was basically a flying wing type aircraft (no horizontal tail) and the X-5 was a variable sweep test platform.
Kit was a test pilot at Muroc/Edwards from 1949 to 1955, an unusually long time for that assignment. Kit’s next Air Force assignment was in
Paris,
France.
[5] He was in charge of technology integration for the U.S. Regional Organization there and was privileged to fly some of Europe’s top airplanes at the time, including the
Italian Fiat G-91, the French Mystere, and the
British Javelin. After that one year assignment he went to
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as head of new developments at the Systems Project Office.
During his time there, 1958–1960, he was Air Force manager for the
X-15 program,
[5] which attained record altitudes of 354,000 feet and a speed record of 4,534 m.p.h. (Mach 6.7). The X-15 program contributed enormously to the
space program and high speed aircraft research, and was acclaimed as the most successful test program of its type. Kit held the rank of
Major at the time, but this was considered a
Colonel’s job. He was approached by
Boeing in 1960. He retired with over 20 years of military service and became Boeing's “company astronaut” managing crew integration for the space program.
[5] In that capacity he massaged the gap between
engineers and
scientists who just wanted
astronauts to ride in a sealed capsule, and pilots who wanted to be able to see what was going on during flights. Kit worked for Boeing on many space program projects from 1960 to 1969, from the
X-20 (a single place space shuttle) to the
Apollo program. He was Technical Integration Manager for Boeing at
Cape Canaveral.
[5]
Engineering
In 1969 Kit moved to the
Ft. Worth area to become Air Force Requirements Engineer for
Bell Helicopter in the tilt rotor program.
[5] He worked for them until 1971, then gradually slowed down in retirement, but still doing many things interesting to him. He managed a hunting club, flew some charter work for Mustang Aviation in
Dallas then did some courtroom reporting for the
Bosque County newspaper. Kit also was project manager for the restoration of the Bosque County Courthouse, taking it back to its 1886 splendor.
Personal life
Arthur Murray married Elizabeth Ann (Betty Anne) Strelic in 1943. They had six children, Michael, John, Christopher, Catherine, Patrick, Peter. The family fostered a seventh child, Elizabeth Anne(Betsy) from the time of her birth in 1963 until the couple separated in 1966. Arthur remarried in 1970 to Dallas Interior Designer Ann Humphreys . Ann now lives in Central Texas on a small horse farm. They combined their efforts and expertise in renovating the
Bosque County Court House and charter members of TETRA, an equine trail riding Organization.
Kit Murray died on July 25, 2011 at a nursing home in the town of
West, Texas at the age of 92.
[6]
Honors
Murray was awarded the following decorations for his military service:
Distinguished Flying Cross and the
Air Medal with eight
oak leaf clusters.
[5] He is a Fellow of the
Society of Experimental Test Pilots and recipient of the French Medal of the City of Paris.
[5] In 1996, Murray was inducted into the
Aerospace Walk of Honor in
Lancaster, California that honors test pilots who have contributed to aviation and space research and development.
[5]
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