Jun 21 1962

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X-15 No. 3 was announced to have been flown by Maj. Robert M. White (USAF) to 250,000 ft. (47.3 mi.) altitude, a new unofficial world record for manned aircraft (later revised to 247,000 ft. or 46.8 miles). Goal of the flight, which attained speed of 3,682 mph (mach 4.99), was to check the adaptive control system at design specifications, and 'Maj. White said the plane performed as expected.

NASA announced that Dr. George L. Simpson, Jr., University of North Carolina sociologist, had been named Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, effective September 1. Dr. Simpson had been Executive Director of the Research Triangle Committee of North Carolina, a regional development organization, since 1956. As a representative of the social sciences, he would bring them into working relationship to NASA’s physical science effort, and underline NASA’s awareness of the social and economic impact of the space program. Dr. Simpson succeeds Dr. Hiden T. Cox who resumed his post as Executive Director of the American Institute of Biological Sciences on July 1.

Neil A. Armstrong, NASA research pilot, awarded the 1962 Octave Chanute Award by the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences (IAS), as the pilot who had contributed most to the aerospace sciences during the year. He was cited for "outstanding contributions in both engineering and piloting capacity in the development of an experimental adaptive control system and in the flight testing of that system in the X-15, No. 3 aircraft."

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