SENATOR ONCE FLEW FASTEST JET; KNIGHT SET AIR SPEED RECORD AS X-15 PILOT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

While the hype begins to build for the 50th anniversary of the first supersonic flight, the 30th anniversary of another major aviation milestone - the fastest airplane flight - is quietly approaching.

On Oct. 3, 1967, W.J. ``Pete'' Knight piloted an X-15 rocket plane to Mach 6.7 - 4,534 mph. Only rockets and space shuttles have reached higher speeds.

With no high-speed airplanes in development, Knight's record appears to be safe for several more years.

``It's satisfying to have been one of the top test pilots at the time,'' said Knight, who after retiring from the Air Force in 1982 served on the Palmdale City Council and now represents the Antelope Valley in the state Senate. ``I'm honored to have been at the right place at the right time.''

Coming eight years after the first flight of the dagger-shaped X-15 rocket planes, Knight's mission was intended to be part of a buildup to speeds of more than 5,000 mph.

To reach this speed, a new engine called a scramjet was developed. Knight's flight was to test the X-15 with a scramjet configuration, so a dummy scramjet was mounted on a pylon underneath the rocket plane.

The airplane also carried two huge external fuel tanks and was coated with a special material that ablated - sloughed off - in flight to protect the X-15 from heat up to 3,000 degrees.

The B-52 mothership carried Knight and the X-15A-2 from Edwards Air Force Base to Mud Lake, a dry lake in Nevada about 200 miles northeast of Edwards. About 45,000 feet, the X-15A-2 was dropped from the B-52.

``I dropped 1,700 feet before we started the climb. I burned the fuel in the external tanks and jettisoned the tanks,'' Knight said. ``I pushed over and came level at 100,000 feet.''

Knight continued to accelerate in level flight until he reached Mach 6.5, the speed goal for the flight. Knight hit the engine's kill switch two minutes after the launch, but the rocket plane continued to accelerate, reaching Mach 6.7 before the engine shut down.

What Knight didn't know was that intense heat was being generated by the shock waves off the dummy scramjet. The heat, later estimated to be more than 2,700 degrees, was burning away the ablative coating and melting huge holes in the skin of the lower tail fin.

The holes in the fin acted as air scoops, bringing super-hot air into the rocket plane and weakening its internal structure.

``There was no indication (of heat damage) until I got back in the landing pattern and tried to jettison the remaining fuel, and it won't jettison and the flaps did not work,'' Knight recalled in an interview last week. ``There's not much you can do. You're committed, so I landed heavy and without flaps.''

As Knight was coming in for landing approach, the dummy scramjet tore off.

Air Force historian Richard Hallion described the final moments of the flight this way:

``The X-15A-2 slowed, dropping down from the skies over Edwards, as the chase planes looked on in amazement at the blackened and charred research plane, which resembled burnt firewood,'' Hallion wrote in his book ``Test Pilots - The Frontiersmen of Flight.''

``Knight completed a successful landing, bringing the potentially dangerous flight to a pleasant close.''

Inspection revealed that the heat had burned instrumentation wiring and a control gas line, which was why Knight could not jettison the remaining fuel, and burned off some of the explosive bolts that were going to be used to jettison the dummy scramjet before landing.

The heat damaged hydraulic lines that connected to the rocket's speed brake. Had the lines burned through, the rocket might have crashed.

``It was rather scary at the time, but that's why you do a buildup,'' Knight said. ``We would have fixed those problems, but the program was canceled.''

A month after Knight's record flight, pilot Mike Adams was killed when his X-15 went out of control and broke apart in midair over the California desert.

With one of the three X-15s destroyed and another damaged, NASA officials re-evaluated the program. After a few more flights, the program was canceled in October 1968.

The record-setting X-15A-2 aircraft never flew again. The aircraft is now at a museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

In all, Knight made 16 flights in an X-15 between September 1965 and September 1968. During one flight, he piloted an X-15 to an altitude of more than 280,500 feet, making him one of eight X-15 pilots to earn astronaut wings by flying into space.

President Lyndon Johnson presented Knight with the Harmon International Aviator's Trophy for his record speed flight.

Knight went on to fly 253 combat missions in Vietnam, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters. After Vietnam, he became test director for the F-15 program and managed other fighter programs at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

When he returned to Edwards, he became vice commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center.

Like many who follow aviation, Knight, now 67, is looking forward to the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager in an X-1 rocket plane over Edwards on Oct. 14, 1947, and the Air Force's 50th birthday celebration - both of which will be celebrated in the Antelope Valley over five days in mid-October.

``It's the 50th anniversary of the Air Force, and I am proud to have been a part of that,'' Knight said, ``and I'm proud to have been a part of the continuation of the first supersonic flight.''

As for the anniversary of his own historic flight, Knight has nothing special planned.

``It's probably going to be just another day,'' Knight said.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) KNIGHT

(2) W.J. ``Pete'' Knight's record-setting Mach 6.7 flight in 1967 was made in an X-15A-2 modified with extra fuel tanks, a supersonic scramjet and a heat-resistant coating.

(3--ran in SAC edition only) In 1967, W.J. ``Pete'' Knight was an Air Force test pilot on the verge of setting the speed record for aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base. Now he is a state senator representing the Antelope Valley.