John B. "Jack" McKay, born in Virginia in 1922, flew 82 combat missions as a Navy fighter pilot in World War II, then returned home to earn a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1950. In the 1950's and 1960's, he built a 20-year flying career at Edwards and became one of the Center’s most experienced rocket pilots, flying most of the nation’s rocket aircraft, including the "B" and "E" versions of the X-1, the X-15, and the jet and rocket versions of the D-558 Skyrocket. He also flew the follow-on versions of the X-1, including the first 13 of the 17 NACA missions logged with the X-1B, as well as the semi-tailless X-4, the X-5 first swing-wing aircraft, and the Century-Series Fighters F-100, F-102, F-104 and F-107. Selected as one of the original seven pilots to fly the X-15, he flew it 29 times, earned an astronaut rating in the aircraft, reached an altitude of 295,600 feet, nearly 56 miles, and achieved a speed of 3,935 mph, Mach 5.6. He retired from NASA in 1971, and died in 1975, 20 years to the day after his first rocket flight. He was honored by the Air Medal with two clusters, the Presidential Unit Citation, the John J. Montgomery Award of the National Society of Aerospace Professionals, the Award for Achievement of the National Aeronautic Association, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute's Hall of Fame.