SPACEPHOTOS

NASA research pilot Edward T. Scheider is shown standing in the cockpit of a two-seat F-104. He is wearing a full pressure suit, which is required on all flights above 50,000 feet. Ed served in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1983. He attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and graduated in 1973. He was then assigned as an engineering test pilot, and as an instructor at the Naval Test Pilot School. He first arrived at what was then called the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility (now the Dryden Flight Research Center) as a Navy Liaison Officer on July 5, 1982. He joined NASA as a research pilot a year later. Ed was a project pilot on the F-18 High Angle-of-Attack program, the F-15 aeronautical research aircraft, the B-52 launch aircraft, and the NASA-operated SR-71 Blackbirds. Ed retired as a NASA research pilot in September 2000.