IVEN CARL KINCHELOE, JR.

'Iven Carl "Kinch" Kincheloe, Jr.'^[1] (July 2, 1928^[2] – July 26, 1958^[3]) was an American test pilot, recipient of Silver Star, DFC and double ace in the Korean War³.
Kincheloe was born in Detroit, Michigan but grew up in Cassopolis, Michigan. He was interested in aircraft from a very young age. He attended Purdue University, where he majored in aeronautical engineering and joined the ROTC. In the summer of 1948, the ROTC cadet was able to meet Chuck Yeager and sit in the cockpit of the Bell X-1. After graduating in 1949, he received his commission in the U.S. Air Force. He spent a year as a test pilot flying the F-86E at Edwards Air Force Base before being promoted first lieutenant and transferred to Korea in September, 1951. During the war, he flew F-80s on 30 missions and F-86s on 101 missions downing five MiG-15s (earning Flying ace and Silver Star) before returning to the states in May, 1952. At this time, he had reached the rank of captain.
After the war, he again became a test pilot, participating in the testing of F-100 Super Sabre, the F-101 Voodoo, the F-102 Delta Dagger, the F-104 Starfighter, the F-105 Thunderchief, and the F-106 Delta Dart. In the mid-1950s, Kincheloe joined the Bell X-2 program and on September 7, 1956^[4], flew at more than 2 000 mph and to a height of 126 200⁴² or 126 500³ feet, the first flight ever above 100 000 feet. For this he was nicknamed "America's No. 1 Spaceman". The X-2 program was halted just three weeks later after a fatal crash resulted in the death of Mel Apt in a flight in which Apt became the first person to exceed Mach 3. Three years later, Kincheloe was selected as one of the first three pilots in the next rocket-powered aircraft program, the X-15, and would have been part of the Man In Space Soonest project. He was killed in the crash of an F-104A at Edwards AFB, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
In September, 1959, Kincheloe Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was renamed in his honor. This base closed in September, 1977. A monument also stands a few miles east of his hometown of Cassopolis, Michigan; it is an angular stone slab twelve feet high bearing a silver model of the X-2 pointed skyward. In 1992, he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.
The Iven C. Kincheloe Award is named in his honor.

Contents

See also

References

External links

See also

★ List of Korean War air aces

★ Elmer W. Harris, fellow Korean squadron pilot

References

1. 'Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr.' is on his grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery.[1]
However, his first name is sometimes spelled 'Ivan'.
'The Right Stuff' (The Right Stuff, however, consistently uses 'Iven' (ISBN 0553381350)).
Astronaut bio: Robert L. Crippen
2. Capt. Iven C. Kincheloe, Jr.
3. Captain Iven C. Kincheloe Jr.
4.
The world's greatest aircraft, , Michael J.H., Taylor, Regency House Publishing Ltd., 1999, ISBN 1-85605-523-X

External links

★ Korean War Aces

★ USAF Museum

★ Story about exploits @ CombatSim

★ "Cassopolis native first man in space" - ''South Bend Tribune'', September 7, 2006

★ "Kincheloe monument restored, rededicated" - ''South Bend Tribune'', September 24, 2006

★ Photograh of Kincheloe with other pilots of his squadron wearing red caps and scarves, ''Sabres and Aces: These rare color images present some of the pilots and aircraft that made history in the Korean War'', Air Force Magazine, Sept. 2006, p. 81.

★ Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr. Photograph of his grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery, with brief biography.