Military Aviation Art
Schweizer 1-23H
Aeronautical engineer and soaring champion Paul Bikle was serving as
Director of the NASA Fight Test Center at Edwards AFB in 1961, then in the
midst of testing the revolutionary X-15 rocketplane. On the blustery
afternoon of Saturday, February 21st that year, Bikle flew his specially
equipped Schweizer 1-23H sailplane on tow from Fox Field in Lancaster,
California and then released to ride the famed Sierra Wave to a
world-record altitude of 46,267 feet above sea level - a record that stood
until 1986. This original painting is in the permanent collection of the
National Soaring Museum in Elmira, New York.
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