SPACEPHOTOS

A NACA High-Speed Flight Station hangar wall meets the nose of a North American F-100A Super Sabre airplane on 8 September 1954.On the first NACA research flight of airplane #52-5778, pilot Scott Crossfield had to make a powerless ''deadstick'' landing following an engine fire warning. This was something North American's own test pilots doubted could be done, for the early F-100 lacked flaps and landed ''hot as hell.'' Crossfield followed up the flawless approach and landing by coasting off the lakebed, up the ramp, and then through the front door of the NACA hangar, frantically trying to stop the F-100A, which had used up its emergency brake power. Crossfield missed the NACA X fleet, but crunched the nose of the aircraft through the hangar's side wall. It is reported that Chuck Yeager then proclaimed that while the sonic wall had been his, the hangar wall was Crossfield's! The hangar wall and the F-100A were repaired, and the airplane flew again.