Posted by xxxxxx on January 28, 2003:

Louis W. Schalk Jr. Dies Test Pilot for Spy Plane Bart BarnesWashington Post Staff Writer August 21, 2002; Page B6 Louis Wellington Schalk Jr., 76, a former chief test pilot for Lockheed Aircraft who in 1962 became the first person to fly the Blackbird reconnaissance spy plane, died of complications related to leukemia and pneumonia Aug. 16 at the Hospice of Northern Virginia. Mr. Schalk helped Lockheed engineers develop the high-speed, high-altitude A-12 aircraft, which became known as the Blackbird, and he designed the cockpit. On April 26, 1962, at Lake Groom, Nev., Mr. Schalk made the first of 13 flights in the A-12, which was the prototype for later versions of the Blackbird, including the SR-71. He reached a top speed of 2,287 mph and altitudes that exceeded 90,000 feet. During his aviation career, which included nine years in the Air Force, he flew more than 70 types of aircraft and logged more than 5,000 hours of flight time. He was quoted as telling aspiring test pilots: "Fly all the planes you are permitted to fly. You will learn from each plane and the test pilot who checks you out." In 1964, Mr. Schalk resigned from Lockheed and moved to Washington, where he worked as a North American Rockwell lobbyist with the National Aeronautics Association. About 10 years later, he left the aerospace industry to form a commercial real estate and appraisal business, which he operated until his death. Mr. Schalk, a resident of Fairfax, was born in Alden, Iowa, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. On graduation in 1948, he joined the newly formed Air Force. He completed pilot training at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., then served in a fighter-bomber unit in Germany. On returning from Germany, he attended flight instructor school in Texas. He graduated first in his class from the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. He was later assigned to fighter operations at Edwards, where he worked under aviation pioneer Chuck Yeager and tested F-100, F-101 and F-104 fighter aircraft. In 1957, he left the Air Force as a captain to become a test pilot with Lockheed. He did more than 100 hours of flight testing on the Electra, America's first turbo-prop commercial airliner. In 1959, Mr. Schalk became the chief test pilot for Lockheed's Advanced Development Program, which had engineers working on conceptual designs for an improved reconnaissance aircraft to replace the U-2 at the request of the CIA. The Lockheed design eventually won the approval of CIA and Defense Department officials, and the first plane was ready to be flown in 1962. But it was not until March 1968, almost six years after Mr. Schalk's first Blackbird flight, that the aircraft flew its first operational mission. Over the next 22 years, Blackbird spy planes would fly 3,551 reconnaissance missions, with numerous passes over hostile territory. No plane was ever lost to enemy fire. Its operating speed was 2,000 mph, and its ceiling was 85,069 feet. The aircraft was retired in 1990, although a few Blackbirds were temporarily reactivated. In 1964, Mr. Schalk received the Iven C. Kincheloe Award of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, the organization's highest honor. In 1996, he was named an Eagle by the Flight Test Historical Foundation. On April 27 at Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale, Calif., he attended a 40th-anniversary celebration of his first Blackbird flight. Survivors include his wife, Louise Schalk of Fairfax; three children, Nancie S. Johnson of Alexandria, Thomas B. Schalk of Plano, Tex., and Louis W. Schalk III of Potomac; a sister; a brother; and three grandchildren.

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