Thumbnail Gallery
Below are photographs from the City of Lancaster's Aerospace Walk of Honor 1999 ceremony honoring Major General Fred J. Ascani for his aviation achievements. I would like to thank General Ascani for sending the photographs to me for use in this website. For details of each photograph, just hover the mouse pointer over the required image.
To view the full sized photographs, please click on the thumbnail images.
The Aerospace Walk of Honor and the sidewalk monument display along Lancaster Boulevard pay tribute to disinguished Edwards Air Force Base test pilots whose history of achievement in the field has been continuously outstanding. The first and only walk in the nation honoring test pilots, Lancaster's Aerospace Walk of Honor acknowledges the City's fifty-year tradition as the nations's aerospace center and host City to a distinguished group of internationaly known experimental test pilots.
Established in 1990 by the Lancaster City Council, the Aerospace Walk of honor awards recognition for test pilots associated with Edwards AFB whose aviation careers are marked by significant and obvious achievements beyond one specific accomplishment. In a profession where extraordinary achievement is the norm, honorees selected for the Aerospace Walk of Honor have soared above the rest.
Please click here to find out more about the ceremony and other honoree's.
Major General Fred J. Ascani was one of the "Men of Mach 1". As Executive of the Flight Test Division at Wright Field, Ohio, he helped select Chuck Yeager as the pilot to surpass Mach 1 in the Bell X-1.
Ascani earned his wings in 1942, and commanded the 816th Bombardment Squadron, completeing 53 combat missions in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. He arrived at Edwards AFB in 1950 and, as Director of Experimental Flight Test and Engineering as well as the first vice commander of the Air Force Flight test Center, he flew more than 50 experimental prototype and research aircraft including the XB-42, X-1, X-4, X-5 and XF-92A. Ascani flew a North American F-86E Sabre at the National Air Races in Detroit , Michigan to establish a new world record of 635.686mph over a 100 kilometer closed course. In 1961, as system program director for the XB-70, he led developement of the Mach 3 bomber prototype.
A 1946 graduate of the Flight Performance School, General Ascani has flown over 5,400 hours. Among his military honors are two Disinguished Flying Crosses, five Air Medals and two Army Commendation Medals. He has been presented with the Thompson and the MacKay Trophies in 1951, the De La Vaulx Medal, the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit. Inducted intot the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in 1997, he was selected as an Eagle by the Flight Test Historical Foundation in 1997 and by the Gathering of Eagles International organization in 1998 and was named to the Aerospace Walk of Honor.
This page has been visited
Other Pages in this site
[X-1 memoirs by Dr. William Pell]