FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NR #06-020410

GOING SUPERSONIC... WITHOUT A PLANE

Midland, Texas (April 10, 2006) - Not many people can boast that they’ve gone supersonic, even fewer that they’ve done so without an airplane. Retired Air Force Col. Joe Kittinger, the speaker for the fourth program in the 2006 American Airpower Heritage Museum seminar series can do just that.  The “Remembrance of War” Seminar, “Test Pilot,” will be held April 22, 2006, and is the second Lunch and a Lecture, located at the High Sky Wing hangar across the street from the CAF Headquarters building at Midland International Airport.  Lunch will be at noon, with the lecture beginning at 1 p.m.

Kittinger will talk about his career as a fighter pilot and test pilot.  His military career began with enlistment in the Air Force in 1948. After winning his wings, he  served as a fighter pilot for three years and then became involved in high altitude research at the Air Force Missile Development Center in New Mexico. During this assignment Kittinger made three high altitude parachute jumps from research balloons, the last one from a height of 102,800 feet. In free fall for more than four minutes, he achieved a speed of 714 mph, effectively going faster than the speed of sound without an airplane surrounding him.

Kittinger later volunteered for three tours as a fighter pilot in Vietnam, commanding the 555th Fighter Squadron. He was shot down in May of 1972 and spent 11 months as a prisoner of war. He retired from the Air Force in 1978.

Admission for the “Lunch and Lecture” is $10 for non-members, $7 for members and reservations are required. Please call 563-1000, ext. 2260 by 5 p.m. Thursday, April 20, 2006 for lunch reservations. Admission for the lecture only is $5 for non-members, $2 for members.

Lunch will be provided by the High Sky Wing of the Commemorative Air Force courtesy of Hooters Restaurant in Odessa.

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