Jean 'Skip' Ziegler in front of the Bell X-5 test article at Edwards Air Force Base.
Ziegler after the first glide flight of the X-2.

Jean "Skip" Ziegler (January 1, 1920 – May 12, 1953) was a United States test pilot. He was killed in an explosion of the Bell X-2 during a test flight in 1953.

Biography

Born in Endeavor, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 1920, Ziegler learnt to fly on his brother's Piper Cub before enlisting in the United States Army Air Forces, flying the Douglas C-47 over the "hump".

After his discharge in 1942, he became a test pilot for Curtiss-Wright, piloting C-46s, P-40 Warhawks as well as the XP-55 Ascender, his first experience on a flying wing. After a brief interlude as a commercial and race plane pilot and Bell rocket engineer, he went on to test North American planes F-86 Sabre, B-45 Tornado, AJ-1 Savage and T-28 Trojan before being selected to work on the Bell Aircraft X-5, X-1D, X-1A and X-2.

Jean Leroy Ziegler completed the first unpowered glide flight of an X-2 at Edwards Air Force Base on 27 June 1952.

Bell Test Flights[1][2][3][4]

Date Vehicle Purpose
20 June 1951 X-5 First test flight of the Bell X-5.
24 July 1951 X-1D Glide flight. Nose landing gear damaged during landing.
27 July 1951 X-5 First deployment of the swept wing mechanism.
8 October 1951 X-5 20th and final phase 1 flight before being turned over to Air Force pilot Maj. Frank Everest.
27 June 1952 X-2 First glide flight of the Bell X-2. Nose landing gear collapsed on landing.
14 February 1953 X-1A Planned as a powered flight, issues with the propellants lead to it being completed as a glide flight with a fuel jettison test.
21 February 1953 X-1A The first powered flight.
26 March 1953 X-1A Successful demonstration of the four cylinder engine operation.
10 April 1953 X-1A A planned powered flight, which was limited to mach 0.93 due to an unknown low frequency elevator buzz.
25 April 1953 X-1A A planned powered flight, which was cut short due to the turbopump overspeeding leading Ziegler jettisoning the remaining fuel. The mach 0.93 buzz was also noted again.
12 May 1953 X-2 Captive-carry flight. An explosion caused by a structural failure in a leather gasket in the engine killed Ziegler and observer Frank Wolko.

Death

On May 12, 1953, during a captive-carry flight test over Lake Ontario, X-2, serial number 46-675 suddenly exploded, killing Bell test pilot Jean Ziegler and observer Frank Wolko aboard the EB-50A mothership, which managed to land, although damaged, while the X-2 remains fell in the lake. Neither his body, nor Wolko's or the X-2 wreckage were ever retrieved.[2][5]

Only after several other mysterious X-plane losses was the cause found to be a rocket engine gasket made of Ulmer leather, which decomposed and became explosively unstable after sustained exposure to liquid oxygen.[2][5]

References

  1. ↑ "X-5 Research Aircraft - NASA". 2014-02-28. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ziegler, Jean 'Skip'". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Mark Wade. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  3. ↑ "Second Generation X-1 - NASA". 2014-02-28. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  4. ↑ "X-2". www.astronautix.com. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  5. 1 2 Swopes, Bryan R. (12 May 2022). "12 May 1953". This Day in Aviation. Retrieved 3 June 2022.

Bibliography

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