Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Cheyenne to the “Dragon Lady”

I performed flight tests on 17 different aircraft
by Jim U.

My father, Virgil Upton, worked at Lockheed for 50 years. I carried on the tradition, and worked at Lockheed Martin for 35 years, from 1962 to 1997. I was in flight test on 17 different aircraft. The first was the A-12, Mach 3.2 single-seat for the Central Intelligence Agency. Next was the AH-56 Cheyenne for the United States Army, S-3A and S-3B Viking for the United States Navy, followed by the Maritime Patrol CP-140 Aurora, built for Canada. I also worked on the long-wing, high-flying U-2 that started in 1955, and is still flying today. I flew in all, except for the U-2 models and the A-12. Thanks for the memories!
I'm getting into the S/N 1005 AH-56 for first flight.


Cheyenne during testing