John A. Manke

John Arnold Manke Sr. (November 13, 1931 – January 31, 2019) was an American test pilot and aerospace engineer. He was the first person to achieve supersonic flight in a lifting body and first to land a lifting body on a runway. He was director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center from 1981 to 1984.

Early life

Manke was born in Selby, South Dakota, United States, on November 13, 1931. He attended the University of South Dakota before entering military service in 1951, serving in the U.S. Navy. He later studied electrical engineering at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he participated in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program and graduated in 1956.

At NASA, Manke first worked as a flight research engineer and later as a research pilot. His assignments in the Pilots' Office included the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Douglas F5D Skylancer, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, and Douglas C-47 Skytrain.

Manke served as a North American X-15 flight planner and completed X-15 ground school with Michael J. Adams. Together, they conducted a test run of the Reaction Motors XLR99 engine at the Rocket Engine Test Facility. He left the X-15 program in 1967 after Adams was killed in an accident during the third X-15 flight.

In 1968, he began piloting rocket-powered wingless lifting bodies optimized for spaceflight. He became the first person to attain supersonic speed in a lifting body on May 9, 1969, during his test flight of a Northrop HL-10. Manke also flew the Martin Marietta X-24 and Northrop M2-F3 a record 42 times. His precision unpowered landing during a test flight of the X-24B at Edwards Air Force Base on August 5, 1975, demonstrated that lifting bodies could be landed on runways, influencing design engineers of the Space Shuttle to forego jet engines, initially intended to aid shuttle landing approaches. He also flew exploratory flights in the fly-by-wire Vought F-8 Crusader to develop control system design changes for the space shuttle.

Manke became facility manager and chief of flight operations at Dryden, and later at Ames Research Center when the two NASA centers were integrated. He served as director of flight operations at Dryden and Ames from October 1, 1981, until his retirement on April 27, 1984. He earned his Mach 3+ pin flying the Lockheed YF-12 Blackbird. Aerospace Walk of Honor (1997)

Manke was Catholic and served as eucharistic minister for Lancaster's Sacred Heart Parish. He flew lightweight aircraft and gliders of his own construction. He belonged to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

He died in Lancaster in 2019, aged 87.

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