Woolams home
topic index
Jack Woolams American Pilot Test Pilot. Born 1917. Died 1 December 1946.

Personal: Male. Killed during a practice flight for a race that was to occur the next day. Bell US Air Force

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Test Pilot (Bell). Deceased

Jack Woolams attended the University of Chicago for two years before joining the Army Air Corps. He served on active duty for approximately eighteen months, after which he returned to the University of Chicago and graduated with a degree in economics in June 1941. Woolams joined Bell Aircraft later that month and was soon transferred from the test flight division to the experimental research division. In September 1942, he became the first person to fly a fighter aircraft coast to coast over the United States without stopping. On December 15, 1943, he set a new unofficial altitude record of 47,600 feet in the YP-59A Airacomet. He became chief test pilot for Bell in 1944, and was the first to fly the X-1 and the only one to pilot the plane at the Pinecastle facility in Orlando, Florida. Woolams' promising career ended abruptly, however, when he was killed during a practice flight for a race that was to occur the next day.

Woolams Chronology

19 January 1946 - XS-1 Flight 1. Bell flight 1. First glide flight of AAF-NACA XS-1 rocket research airplane (No.1 of the original three X-1's built), by Jack Woolams, Bell Aircraft test pilot, at Pinecastle Army Air Base, Fla.

5 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 2. Bell flight 2. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
5 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 3. Bell flight 3. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
11 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 4. Bell flight 4. Gear retracted, left wing damaged. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
19 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 5. Bell flight 5. Nosewheel retracted on landing runout. Landing-gear door damaged. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
25 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 7. Bell flight 7. Longitudinal and directional stability investigation. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
25 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 6. Bell flight 6. Static directional stability investigation. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
26 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 8. Bell flight 8. Dynamic stability check. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
26 February 1946 - XS-1 Flight 9. Bell flight 9. Rate of roll investigation. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
6 March 1946 - XS-1 Flight 10. Bell flight 10. Static longitudinal stability investigation. At Pinecastle AAF, Florida.
1 December 1946 - Test Pilot Jack Woolams dies at age of 29 -- Killed during a practice flight for a race that was to occur the next day..
Contact us with any corrections, additions, or comments.
Conditions for use of drawings, pictures, or other materials from this site..
To contact astronauts or cosmonauts.

© Mark Wade, 1997 - 2008 except where otherwise noted.