An American Adventure: The Rocket Pilots

This program is titled, "An American Adventure: The Rocket Pilots," and was broadcast originally in 1981. It was rebroadcast in its entirety by the Arts and Entertainment cable network many years later. The sole sponsor was General Motors. Though not yet available, a DVD of this feature would be an excellent educational tool.

It's difficult for younger folks to imagine the excitement and wonder with which fans of space flight first greeted the broadcast of The Rocket Pilots in 1981. On April 14th, 1981, the Space Shuttle made its maiden voyage, piloted by the able skills of veteran astronaut, John W. Young and his co-pilot, Robert L. Crippen. This was prior to our knowledge of the design flaws engineered into a space system designed to do everything for everyone, yet fated to fall far short of its ultimate promise.

The Rocket Pilots was produced by NBC that same year. It was co-written and narrated by one of its ablest reporters, Lloyd Dobyns, part of the cadre of professional journalists who had helped to produce one of the finest news programs of the decade, NBC News Overnight, which also featured Linda Ellerbee and Bill Schechner. The Rocket Pilots came from an era of great television news reporting and production. Its quality, attention to historical detail, and entertainment value are obvious from start to finish. It was, perhaps, a documentary labor of love, attempting to capture the final moments of innocent awe and wonder for the U. S. space program.

Opening in 1981 with a scene of the first landing of the brand new Space Transportation System at Edwards Air Force Base in California, this fascinating news documentary takes us on an historical journey to an earlier, more adventuresome time of the American Space Program. From 1959 to 1968 legendary, yet relatively unheralded and unknown test pilots "flew into and out of space" on a regular schedule. They piloted NASA's X-15 experimental space plane. When America's race to the moon committed NASA to using ballistic missiles as our primary space vehicle, the resulting media frenzy completely obliterated the historical significance of this incredible program. America already had the beginnings of a viable, practical, and well developed space transportation system by 1960 that was essentially forgotten and discarded for twenty years. The Space Shuttle was the finished result of data gathered during the X-15 program.

The Rocket Pilots reveals this unfortunate oversight while reminding us that machines do not make technological history, … humans do. During the first part of the documentary, we are shown some of the finest and most significant historical film footage of aviation's greatest triumphs and tragedies. We are transported from the first successful powered flight of the Wright brothers, into the desperation of two World Wars, and witness the engineering and advancement of better airframes and power plants over half a century of challenging innovation. Built within that history is always one goal, one challenge, …. GO FASTER. Many men died attempting to challenge that goal. Many planes simply broke apart while attempting to exceed the "sound barrier." Some very spectacular images of aviation's more notable crashes and explosions are included throughout the film.

The Rocket Pilots takes us to the golden era of aviation research at the dry lake bed of Muroc Field, known in aviation history as Edwards Air Force Base, home of the U. S. Air Force Flight Test Center. Edwards was THE place to be a test pilot from the 1950's and on. Here we meet the legends of test flight; Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, Mel Apt, William Knight, Neil Armstrong, and many others. We hear their personal stories, and, we are given an up close and personal view of Chuck Yeager's flight of the X-1 past the speed of sound. We are shown Scott Crossfield's early test flights of the X-15 for contractor, North American Aviation. Showing what could certainly be classified as the "Right Stuff," Crossfield states flatly in an interview that he considers himself the first American Astronaut, despite the fact that he was never actually allowed to take the X-15 into space. One could certainly argue his point, but sympathy abounds for his opinion. Yet, there is simply no argument concerning the absolute flying skills of both Yeager or Crossfield. Before computers could automatically design or fly an aircraft, skilled test pilots routinely placed their lives at risk to discover the limits of the planes they flew. This film documents their amazing contribution to aviation and space flight.

Through NASA's wonderfully detailed color films of the actual flights, the documentary shows the highlights of a space program that met and exceeded everyone's engineering expectations with only a few tragedies along the way. Perhaps, when viewed from a non- political agenda, the X-15 engineering program would have been the more practical and logical choice when planning a space transportation system. The roar and fire of thundering rockets made exciting photos, and landing on the moon was a spectacular media event that ignited the imagination of the public in the decade of the 60's. However, ignoring symbolic and temporary political needs might have gotten us a shuttle system or space station that much earlier. The X-15 could have made that possible. Yet, the point is made that without the imagination and support of the American public, no national project of this magnitude is likely to progress or succeed. For better or for worse, we have inherited the rocket.

Before the thundering rockets of the USSR and the USA began to challenge each other for the high ground of space, a half century of test pilots had brought us to the edge of Earth's atmosphere. A small, stubby winged, experimental rocket plane called the X-15 first made that huge leap into outer space in 1959. And, this spectacular American Adventure was captured on film for all of us to remember.

Executive Producer: Dan O'Connor; Produced Directed: Darold Murray; Written by: Lloyd Dobyns, Darold Murray, Patrick Trese

Over the years, I have pieced together 3 (poor) video tapes from the TV broadcast of this video in 1981-1982 into the "best" full-version I could make, and made a DVD out of it. I've been searching for YEARS for a high quality, complete version of "The Rocket Pilots". It is an excellent documentary on the X plane program from the X-1 to the X-15, and should be staple viewing in high schools - since they spend so much time watching videos these days instead of actually using their brains to learn. I used to show this video to my AFROTC freshmen so they could get a good, working knowledge of the space program and its infancy. I still love to watch the documentary even though I've seen it over and over. If you have forgotten the likes of Chuck Yeager and Scott Crossfield - shame on you - and this video is a MUST for you to see. If ANYONE knows where to find a GOOD copy of this video, I'd sure like to know!