The real “Steve Austin”, test pilot Bruce Peterson, was born in 1933 and was from Washburn, North Dakota. Peterson joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1954 through the naval cadet program and became a 2nd lieutenant. He went on to accumulate an extensive academic engineering background from the University of California (UCLA) and California Polytechnic State University. During his academic career at UCLA, Peterson also worked as an aircraft assembler for Douglas Aircraft Company. Peterson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly in 1960.
In August, 1960, Peterson joined NASA’s flight test program as an engineer at the Dryden Flight Test Center. In 1962, he graduated from the prestigious Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and transferred to flight testing.
But it was his 16th test flight on May 10, 1967 in the Northrop M2-F2 that solidified Peterson’s place in pop culture history. Peterson was attempting a landing in the M2-F2 when the aircraft entered a series of side-to-side oscillations seen in the famous film of his crash.
In the intro to “The Six Million Dollar Man”, pilot Steve Austin is heard to say, “I’ve got a blowout, damper three!” Austin goes on to say in the script, “Pitch is out. I Can’t hold altitude. Correction, alpha hold is off. Trim selectors- emergency!” And then the final famous line, “Flight Com, I can’t hold it! She’s breaking up! She’s breaking…”
In real life, test pilot Peterson says just prior to the crash, “Boy, there’s some glitches…” “Get that chopper out of the way!” “That chopper’s gonna get me I’m afraid!” Peterson was concerned about the proximity of a helicopter during his landing approach and, when he entered a series of oscillations in the essentially wing-less lifting body, the aircraft became uncontrollable. After impact, the M2-F2 rolled violently six times, the dramatic visual seen in the video. The rest is a matter of aviation, and television, history.
Peterson sustained serious injuries from the crash including the eventual loss of vision in his right eye from a staph infection, but it did not stop him from continuing his successful flight test career. Even without six million dollars’ worth of bionics, Peterson went on to fly nearly 6,000 total flight hours in 70 different aircraft. He was an early flight test engineer on fly-by-wire advanced flight control systems and went on to work for Northrop on the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber program. Bruce Peterson died after a long illness on May 1, 2006 at 72.
Much more at the link.
Open thread!
Tom Levenson
“We have the technology.”
Well, once upon a time we did.
Not no mo’
rikyrah
That was my show??
The Moar You Know
Was wondering if this was part of the X-20 program. Quick search of the googles says it wasn’t
ETA: damn thing crashed twice. They should have gone with the center fin after the first one.
Kari Q
My father was an engineer at NASA. He worked on this project. I talked to him recently and he said this test was the biggest regret of his career. He knew the plane could not do what they were testing. He knew it wouldn’t go well. But he was young, he had just started, and he didn’t speak up and stop it.
But he learned from it and from then on, whenever he felt that way he said “No, we’re not going to do that.”
Thank God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whoever, that Peterson survived.
Adam L Silverman
@Kari Q: Good for your dad! Too few learn that lesson.
oatler.
If the Bionic Man did any heavy lifting his robot arm would have torn itself from the torso.
Adam L Silverman
@oatler.: Way to ruin it for everybody…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I’ve caught reruns of The Six Million Dollar Man. It was alright, if a tad corny sometimes. Was that “slow-motion” effect in the 70s cutting edge then?
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No. We all moved like that and made that sound.
The Pale Scot
This is great
SILLY WALKING IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS IN SOME NEIGHBOURHOODS.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@oatler.:
@Adam L Silverman:
Who would win: Steve Austin or a T-800?
Kari Q
@The Moar You Know:
As you found, no. This was a lifting body technology demonstration program. They were essentially the forerunners of the Space Shuttle.
Look up Dale Reed if you’re interested in that kind of thing. Dale was an amazing guy, and a real pleasure to know.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): One’s a robot with an AI for a brain sheathed in human flesh. The other is a human with a bionic arm, ear, eye, and bionic legs. What do you think?
Adam L Silverman
I’m too bed. Catch everyone on the flip.
Steeplejack
@Adam L Silverman:
I still move like that and make that sound, but it’s because I’m old.
Kari Q
@Adam L Silverman:
Yep, he taught me: Stand up and speak out when you see a problem. You may save a life.
He’s my hero.
When he talks about this – which is rare – he refers to it as ‘the Bruce Peterson thing’ not “The Six Million Dollar Man crash.” I always have to think for a moment before I connect the two.
Keith P.
What’s the origin of Heat Vision and Jack?
Kari Q
Edited original.
CaseyL
I didn’t know The $6M Man was based, however tenuously, on a real incident! I wonder what it’s like to live through that: every day thereafter is a gift, so I think either you become even more insanely adventurous, or. you figure you used up your entire life’s worth of luck and be really, really careful afterward.
Since Petersen kept flying, it seems he took the more adventurous path. Good for him!
It’s also funny to think that the tech today is worlds, universes, more advanced than what they gave Steve Austin, and that $6M wouldn’t buy one tenth of it. More like the $6 Billion Man…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CaseyL:
Inflation in the late 70’s.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
LOL
@Adam L Silverman:
Can’t Steve run pretty fast, faster than a T-800? Plus, the T-800 always struck me as not exactly dumb, but not super smart either. It’s not capable of learning by design (Skynet doesn’t want self-awareness for it’s robot slave armies). I think Steve would have the advantage in terms of human creative thinking as well as backup from OSI
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@CaseyL:
I believe the 6 Million Dollar Man was also based on a book that was based on Peterson’s life
CaseyL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I remember the series, because I loved it (and the $6M Dollar Woman); but if I read the book it was based one, I don’t remember.
gwangung
@CaseyL: Cyborg, by Martin Caidin?
JWR
O/T but is this where today’s “OBAMAGATE” tweet-storm came from?
Brachiator
Interesting stuff. I didn’t know the background of the incident that helped inspire the series.
I kinda viewed the series as an optimistic reworking of the Frankenstein story. And “The Bionic Woman” was the Bride of Frankenstein.
West of the Rockies
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I believe writer Martin Caiden wrote a fiction book called Cyborg that led to the show. I also heard that the series did the slow motion effect because sped up footage (to approximate Austin running 60 mph) just looked silly.
Kari Q
@CaseyL: Test pilots. They’re crazy adrenaline junkies.
Kari Q
@JWR:
I’ve been trying to figure that out too. As far as I can tell, the right believes that dismissing charges against Flynn is a scandal for Obama?
JWR
@Kari Q:
Your guess is as good as another, but it would seem that criticizing one’s predecessor would make Obama guilty of “Obamagating”. Or something. And BTW, this is the first I’ve ever heard of Michael Nöthem.
ETA he seems to be a friend of James Woods.
Timurid
I’m not sure who I watched crash more times growing up… that guy or Vinko Bogataj…
NotMax
1957, first appearance of the Challengers of the Unknown. That’s test pilot Ace Morgan at the controls. #1 – #2.
;)
Redshift
I think I was already familiar with this story from the time of the show, but the same model of lifting body has long been on display in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kari Q:
Adam explained it downstairs.
JWR
@Steeplejack (phone):
Okay, so “Obamagating” involves preventing Trump from becoming preznit. Wow. It’s so stupid it’s genius!
Sloane Ranger
OK, going to be somewhat shallow here and admit to a crush here, not on Steve Austin, as you’d expect, but on Oscar Goldman.
What does that say about me?
KateinWhitehead
So, my dad was an engineer out at Dryden. He used to carpool with one of the test pilots who was flying chase that day. You could hear his voice in the opening credits. I am told they used to call Peterson the six dollar man after the show came out because he couldn’t run 60 mph. But the work they did out there was exciting and scary and amazing (I might have memories of my father bringing home films of clear air turbulence tests for us to watch as a child and I might have a summer internship in high school where I worked on the forward swept wing project and learned my first programming FORTRAN IV).
Kari Q
@KateinWhitehead:
You worked on the X-29 project? That was a neat aircraft!
I’m sure our fathers knew each other. Dryden folks were pretty close.
Grumpy Code Monkey
I was the target audience for SMDM – I was 8 years old when it premiered and had the action figure and assorted paraphernalia (the space capsule that turned into an operating table). Watched it religiously during its run. Yes, even the Bigfoot episodes. Fast forward 45 years when I found a bootleg copy of the pilot on YouTube and started watching it, and OMG was it painful. Glacial pacing, boring dialog, and Lee…well, Lee wasn’t the awesomest actor to ever grace the small screen. I don’t need to rewatch the regular episodes because I don’t want to completely destroy my childhood.
Although, it could be like the original Hawaii Five-O – that pilot was also a total dumpster fire (how Jack Lord didn’t suffer a permanently debilitating hernia carrying that thing all by himself is a mystery to this day), but the regular episodes were pretty tight.
Another Scott
I knew the opening and idea for the series was based on a real crash and a real person. And then it just went way, way out there. ;-)
This reminds me of Niki Lauda.
Too many people took what we now would consider insane risks back in those days. And kept going, because they loved their jobs.
Cheers,
Scott.
KateinWhitehead
I grew up in Tehachapi. My dad spent 1976 to around 1994 out at Dryden. He did a lot of backpacking and photography when he wasn’t working. @Kari Q: