The Best of the Best
On 26 July 1958, United States Air Force test pilot Captain Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr. took off from Edwards Air Force Base, southern California, in a Lockheed F-104A-15-LO Starfighter 56-0772, acting as a chase plane for another F-104A which was flown by a Lockheed test pilot, Louis W. Schalk, Jr.
As the two supersonic interceptors began their climb out from the runway, a small control cable deep inside Kincheloe’s fighter failed, allowing the inlet guide vane of the F-104’s General Electric J79-GE-3 turbojet engine to close. With the suddenly decreased airflow the engine lost power and the airplane started to descend rapidly. Captain Kincheloe radioed, “Edwards, Mayday, Seven-Seventy-Two, bailing out.” The early F-104 Starfighters had a Stanley Aviation Corporation Type B ejection seat that was catapulted or dropped by gravity from the bottom of the cockpit. 56-0772 was equipped with an improved Stanley Type C ejection seat. With the Starfighter well below 2,000 feet (610 metres), Kincheloe apparently thought that he needed to roll the airplane inverted before ejecting. This was not necessary and delayed his escape.
By the time he had separated from the seat and could open his parachute, Kincheloe was below 500 feet (152 metres). The parachute did open, but too late. Iven Kincheloe, who was just 30 years old, was killed on impact. His airplane crashed into the desert floor just over nine miles (14.5 kilometres) from the west end of Runway 22 and was totally destroyed.Today,alargecraterscatteredwithfragmentsofKincheloe’sF-104is still clearly visible.
A legendary test pilot
Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr. started flying lessons when he was 14 years old and by the time, he was legally allowed to fly solo, on his 16th birthday he had already accumulated over 200 flight hours. He entered the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Programme (ROTC) at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, where he met Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager and decided that test flying was the career area that he wanted to pursue. Kincheloe was commissioned as a second lieutenant, United States Air Force Reserve, on 17 June 1949. After graduating, he was sent to Edwards Air Force Base to work on the new North American Aviation F-86E Sabre.
Kincheloe was deployed to Korea as a fighter pilot with the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing in August 1951, flying the F-86E Sabre as an escort for bomber formations. He was transferred to the 25th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 51st Fighter Interceptor Group and immediately began to shoot down enemy Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighters.
He was soon an ‘ace’ with five confirmed kills. After his combat tour (131 missions) in Korea, Kincheloe was assigned as an exchange student to the Empire Test Pilots’ School at Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough, England. After completing the ten-month British training programme in 1955, he was sent back to Edwards Air Force Base.