Captain James Thomas Fitz-Gerald Jr. s/o James Thomas & Alice Elizabeth (Jones) Fitzgerald, grandson of Richard H. and Charlotte Rochester (Smith) Fitz-Gerald & Arthur Scotte and Cornelia Fay (Jackson)Jones, great grandson of George Washington & Livonia Deborah (White) Jackson, gg-grandson of Benjamin Jackson.
Capt. Fitzgerald, a 1943 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, had been an accomplished Army Air Corps fighter pilot during World War II before he was shot down on August 8, 1944 and held in a German prisoner of war camp until liberated in 1945. Though denied the opportunity to continue flying combat in the Pacific, Fitzgerald was later selected to become an Air Force test pilot and joined the X-1 program. He completed seven flights aboard the X-1 including four at supersonic speeds. Fitzgerald surpassed Mach 1 during his first attempt, on 24 February 1948 (the 71st flight of the program). He reached a top speed of Mach 1.1 before a fire forced him to shut off the engine and jettison the propellants. Fitzgerald continued flying the X-1 over the next few months, but was tragically killed in September 1948 following a landing accident aboard a T-33.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0267.shtml
James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, was the second person to break the sound barrier, after Chuck Yeager.
All the information on James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, comes from family, descendants of Cornelia Fay (Jackson) & Arthur Scotte Jones. X-1 flight records courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
Capt. Fitzgerald, a 1943 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, had been an accomplished Army Air Corps fighter pilot during World War II before he was shot down on August 8, 1944 and held in a German prisoner of war camp until liberated in 1945. Though denied the opportunity to continue flying combat in the Pacific, Fitzgerald was later selected to become an Air Force test pilot and joined the X-1 program. He completed seven flights aboard the X-1 including four at supersonic speeds. Fitzgerald surpassed Mach 1 during his first attempt, on 24 February 1948 (the 71st flight of the program). He reached a top speed of Mach 1.1 before a fire forced him to shut off the engine and jettison the propellants. Fitzgerald continued flying the X-1 over the next few months, but was tragically killed in September 1948 following a landing accident aboard a T-33.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0267.shtml
James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, was the second person to break the sound barrier, after Chuck Yeager.
All the information on James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, comes from family, descendants of Cornelia Fay (Jackson) & Arthur Scotte Jones. X-1 flight records courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
Captain James Thomas Fitz-Gerald Jr. s/o James Thomas & Alice Elizabeth (Jones) Fitzgerald, grandson of Richard H. and Charlotte Rochester (Smith) Fitz-Gerald & Arthur Scotte and Cornelia Fay (Jackson)Jones, great grandson of George Washington & Livonia Deborah (White) Jackson, gg-grandson of Benjamin Jackson.
Capt. Fitzgerald, a 1943 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, had been an accomplished Army Air Corps fighter pilot during World War II before he was shot down on August 8, 1944 and held in a German prisoner of war camp until liberated in 1945. Though denied the opportunity to continue flying combat in the Pacific, Fitzgerald was later selected to become an Air Force test pilot and joined the X-1 program. He completed seven flights aboard the X-1 including four at supersonic speeds. Fitzgerald surpassed Mach 1 during his first attempt, on 24 February 1948 (the 71st flight of the program). He reached a top speed of Mach 1.1 before a fire forced him to shut off the engine and jettison the propellants. Fitzgerald continued flying the X-1 over the next few months, but was tragically killed in September 1948 following a landing accident aboard a T-33.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0267.shtml
James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, was the second person to break the sound barrier, after Chuck Yeager.
All the information on James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, comes from family, descendants of Cornelia Fay (Jackson) & Arthur Scotte Jones. X-1 flight records courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
Capt. Fitzgerald, a 1943 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, had been an accomplished Army Air Corps fighter pilot during World War II before he was shot down on August 8, 1944 and held in a German prisoner of war camp until liberated in 1945. Though denied the opportunity to continue flying combat in the Pacific, Fitzgerald was later selected to become an Air Force test pilot and joined the X-1 program. He completed seven flights aboard the X-1 including four at supersonic speeds. Fitzgerald surpassed Mach 1 during his first attempt, on 24 February 1948 (the 71st flight of the program). He reached a top speed of Mach 1.1 before a fire forced him to shut off the engine and jettison the propellants. Fitzgerald continued flying the X-1 over the next few months, but was tragically killed in September 1948 following a landing accident aboard a T-33.
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0267.shtml
James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, was the second person to break the sound barrier, after Chuck Yeager.
All the information on James Thomas Fitzgerald Jr, comes from family, descendants of Cornelia Fay (Jackson) & Arthur Scotte Jones. X-1 flight records courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
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