Back in the 1940s and ´50s, Air Force Colonel John Paul Stapp just loooooved being a human guinea pig. One time, he flew in a airplane at 570 miles per hour, with the top down – just to see if it was ...

The mechanical voice of the loudspeaker cracked across the clear, dry air of New Mexico’s Tularosa Valley: “Ten, nine, eight . . .” Safe in a concrete bunker, tense men at a periscope window kept ...

Part I: The glorious rebellion against dissolution. 1. Where are my children to-night? -- 2. The most interesting place -- 3. Colonel Tank and Colonel Gas -- 4. Scum jobs -- 5. The citadel of ...

In the late 1940s, the notion of space travel lived squarely in the realm of science fiction. But a young Army doctor named John Paul Stapp saw no limit to how far mankind could go—he had his eyes set ...

Dr. John P. Stapp earned the title “The Fastest Man Alive” at Holloman Air Force Base on Dec. 10, 1954. Courtesy of the New Mexico Museum of Space History New Mexico Museum of Space History Dr. John ...

In the 1950s and '60s, Captain Joseph Kittinger was a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force's high altitude balloon experiments. In 2015, Col. Kittinger sat down with American Experience to discuss his ...

The heroes of early aviation were men who tested dubious airplanes to see if they would fly. or bailed out with questionable parachutes to see if they would open. Much of this work today is done by ...