MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT MICHAEL WHITE - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 24469

ROBERT MICHAEL WHITE
B/w photo of pilot Robert White in a flight suit and standing next to a jet plane, signed with his "Sincere Best Wishes"
Inscribed photograph signed "To Randall Sutherland/Sincere Best Wishes/Robert M White/Major General/USAF". Pencil notation on verso in unknown hand. B/w, 8x10 overall, 7¼x9½ image, one surface. US Air Force pilot Robert Michael White (1924-2010) set a number of records in the X-15 rocket plane during the 1960s, including becoming the first airplane pilot to reach space. White was a World War II and Korean War fighter pilot who was shot down and held in a German prisoner of war camp from February to April of 1945. He joined the X-15 program in 1957 as a backup pilot and was named the prime pilot after Ivan Kincheloe was killed in an air crash in 1958. White became the first person to fly six times faster than the speed of sound (4,093 miles per hour, to be exact) on Nov. 9, 1961. He also flew the X-15 to an altitude of 59.6 miles on July 17, 1962, an altitude that made him the first airplane pilot to earn the Air Force rating of winged astronaut. He was also involved in the development of the F-15 Eagle fighter and A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft. White retired from the United States Air Force as a major general in 1981. Lightly toned and bowed. Light dents at top edge and top left corner. Light chip in left edge. Tape residue on verso (no show-through). Otherwise in fine condition.