BUFFALO – Altoona-Midway High School is proud to be known as the Jets – the only high school in the state to claim that distinctive mascot.
Moreover, having such a unique nickname is very appropriate – considering the school chose the supersonic aircraft to honor the memory of a distinguished, exceptional alumnus.
“Jets” was selected as the school’s moniker to honor Captain Milburn G. “Mel”
Apt – a test pilot for the United States Air Force who on September 27, 1956, became the first person in history to reach the speed of Mach 3 in the Bell-X2 Rocket.
Unfortunately, moments later the Bell-X2 crashed, costing the heroic Apt his life at the young age of 32.
Milburn “Mel” Apt was born in the tiny Kansas community of Buffalo in 1924 and graduated from Buffalo High School in 1942, at a time when the mascot for that high school was the Pirates.
But Buffalo and Vilas schools would merge to become Midway High School, and since 1957 the school (which would also consolidate with Altoona in 1966-67) has honored Apt by proudly boasting “Jets” as its symbol.
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Milburn G. “Mel” Apt joined the Army Air Force right out of high school in 1942 and was immediately sent to flight school. Commissioned in February 1944, Apt served with the Caribbean Defense Command until June 1946. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kansas in 1951 and graduated from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
In recognition of his superior piloting skills, Apt was sent to the Experimental Flight Test School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, graduating from the school in 1954.
Apt was highly regarded for remaining cool under stressful situations. In December 1954, while flying a chase plane on a test sortie for a Lockheed F-94C, he responded to an emergency with great poise. The test aircraft crash-landed on the dry lake bed at Edwards with its pilot, Richard J. Harer, trapped in the cockpit.
Apt, an eyewitness as Harer struggled to control his plane, landed alongside the stricken craft nearly simultaneously and rushed to Harer's aid.
“It was nothing but fire,” Apt was quoted in Life Magazine. “The only part of the plane I could see sticking out of the flames was the tip of the tail.” Apt attempted to break the canopy with his bare hands, to no avail. Miraculously, another man who witnessed the crash sped across the lake bed in his jeep. The driver emptied a small fire extinguisher which had minimal effect on the flames, then Apt repeatedly smashed the empty canister against the canopy but it bounced off.
“It was like hitting a big spring,” he says forlornly. “I couldn’t break it.” By this time Captain Harer’s flesh was on fire. The jeep driver dashed back to his vehicle and returned with a five-gallon gasoline can – fortunately, filled not with gas, but with water.
Apt raised the heavy can high in the air and smashed it down. The canopy cracked a bit. Apt hit it again, opening a hole in it, letting out the smoke inside. In a few seconds, he had broken a large jagged opening through which Harer could be pulled out.
“It was a tough job,” Apt was quoted in Life. “Harer was a very tall man. “He’s not tall now,” Apt continued. “Both his feet were burned off.” But Captain Harer lived, and for his courageous act, Apt was awarded the Soldier’s Medal.
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Apt accepted an assignment as an experimental test pilot at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards in April 1955. He served as a flight test engineer and project pilot on various aircraft test programs and conducted inertial coupling tests in the F-100.
His daughter, Sharman Apt Russell, who was only two at the time of her father’s death, would grow up to become an author, and decades later wrote a “Letter to My Father Concerning the State of the World.”
“By 1956 you had spent over 3,000 hours in the air and flown all the tricky, experimental Century Series jet fighters,” she wrote. “You helped debug the F-100 by, as one observer wrote, ‘inching steadily closer to the speed at which the plane went crazy.’ You brought the multi-million-dollar F-105 back to base with an engine fire rather than abandon it. One test pilot put your skills in practical terms,
‘All the manufacturers used to ask for the guy with the bald head.’ That was you, prematurely balding, short and slight, with a seemingly shy smile.” Apt was assigned to the X-2 program in February 1956. The Bell X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft developed jointly by Bell Aircraft, the United States Air Force, and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
(NACA) which in 1958 would become NASA.
The experimental research rocket was built to “investigate the future of aeronautics” – particularly flight characteristics in the range of Mach 2-3 speeds. The X-2, designed to drop out of the belly of a B-50 mothership and then ignite its rocket engine, pushed the envelope of manned flight to speeds, altitudes, and temperatures beyond any other aircraft at the time.
“These are powerful rocket planes,” Air Force Magazine described, “each icebox white, small, and more powerful than any engine man has ever built. They are rapier-nosed guided missiles, guided by men who are a new breed of pilots … Probing the unknown, their missions are dangerous.” “Of course, you begged for the chance to fly this plane,” his daughter wrote.
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Following a series of glided flights, Lt. Col. Frank “Pete” Everest and Capt. Iven Kincheloe flew 12 powered flights in the X-2 over the period of a year, with Everest establishing a speed record flight of Mach 2.87 in July 1956. On Sept. 7, 1956, Kincheloe became the first man to pilot an aircraft above 100,000 feet altitude when he reached a height of 126,200 feet.
Twenty days later, Apt, who had practiced simulated missions and flown several chase missions in support of those X-2 flights, got his chance to pilot the craft. Dropped from the belly of the B-50 bomber over the Mojave Desert in California, Apt glided momentarily and then ignited the X-2 engine.
For the next two-plus minutes, Apt flew a near-perfect flight profile. In fact, Apt hit his marks so well – much more precisely than previous pilots had accomplished – and the X-2 engine burned longer than expected. Apt raced away from the B-50 under full power, quickly outdistancing the F-100 chase planes.
At high altitude, he nosed over, as planned, accelerating rapidly. What was not planned … the X-2 reached Mach 3.196 (2,094 mph) at 65,000 feet. Apt became the first person to fly more than three times the speed of sound.
Unfortunately, the elation of becoming the “fastest man alive” was short-lived. Euphoria quickly turned to catastrophe. Everest had previously reported that at high speeds, the X-2 flight controls were only marginally effective. Moreover, simulation and wind tunnel studies, combined with flight data, suggested the airplane would encounter very severe stability problems as it approached Mach 3.
If Apt remained on a straight course until the X-2 decelerated to what previously had been deemed “a safe turning range (Mach 2.4),” he likely feared he would not have had enough energy and range to reach the safety of Rogers Dry Lake, the landing area.
So, with his speed still above Mach 3, Apt risked initiating a turn back toward Edwards. A control divergence known as inertial coupling occurred, and the X-2 began to tumble uncontrollably. Apt jettisoned the escape capsule but was unable to extract himself before it struck the ground.
Apt’s death cast a shadow over the most spectacular achievement of the program.
The pilot’s parents, Oley and Ada Apt, still lived in Buffalo when the crash occurred. His mother firmly believed her son was happy doing what he did and had no regrets.
“He had an inherent love of flying,” she said at the time. “He flew the X-2 knowing full well the risks involved.”
Apt’s speed record of Mach 3.2 stood until the X-15 exceeded it in August 1960. Capt. Apt was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, established for those who distinguished themselves by single acts of heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.
Because of the willingness of Apt to take such risks – along with many other test pilots – the United States would win the Cold War and the Space Race – and put a man on the moon in 1969.
Apt is buried in the Buffalo Cemetery. But the memory of his heroism will forever fly high at this rural Kansas school.