James “Jim” Eastham
By: Alumni Publications | Categories: In Memoriam
James "Jim" Eastham, ME 55, of Meridian, Miss., on Jan. 4. After serving as a military pilot in WWII and the Korean War, Eastham embarked on a flying career in the private sector and went on to break aviation records.
In 1944, Eastham was called to active duty with the Army Air Corps and was one of the original pilots of the Berlin Airlift.
He studied mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech until 1950, when he was recalled to active duty with the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.
Eastham continued flying in the Air Force Reserve and Georgia’s Air National Guard. In 1953, he became a member of the "Caterpillar Club”—a distinction given to those who have used a parachute to escape a disabled aircraft—after bailing out of a T-28 as it exploded.
In 1956, Eastham joined the experimental flight test department of the Hughes Aircraft Co. During the next four years, he flew approximately 800 test missions in the F-102, F-106 and B-58, firing 350 missiles, a record for the number of missiles fired by any one person. He also helped to develop various fire control and infrared systems and automatic flight control systems for the F-101 and F-106 Interceptor aircraft.
In 1962, he joined Lockheed-California, where he was involved in the Blackbird program. Eastham set a new world record when he piloted the A-12 at a speed of Mach 3.3 and an altitude of 83,000 feet, sustaining the same speed for over 10 minutes. But as far as the rest of the world knew, it had never happened. Although many models were proposed, this was the only reconnaissance version that ever made it to production.
In 1965, Eastham was instrumental in setting the world speed record by the YF-12A, the prototype interceptor version of the Blackbird, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He was the first to fly speed courses perfecting the required techniques before the air force pilots set the records officially.
Over his lifetime, Eastham accumulated approximately 10,000 hours of total flying time, with more than 4,000 hours spent in single- and multi-engine jets.
In 1964, Eastham received the Ivan Kincheloe Award for his work on the YF-12A (A-11) Lockheed Super-Secret Project. The award recognizes outstanding professional accomplishment in the conduct of flight testing. Eastham also received the Blackbird Laurels Medallion after induction into the Blackbird Laurels Fraternity. He was inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame and the NASA Aerospace Walk of Honor, honoring aviation pioneers in Lancaster, Calif.
