"Flightcom, I can't hold it! She's breaking up, she's breaking--"

May 4, 2006 5:14 AM

Bruce Peterson has died.Peterson was one of NASA's top test pilots for the lifting body program, a wingless aircraft with which NASA experimented during the sixties. Peterson retired from research flying after he barely survived a spectacular crash of his M2-F2--after Peterson recovered from an oscillation in which the aircraft rolled uncontrollably from side to side, he changed course to avoid colliding with a rescue helicopter, but a cross wind shifted him to an unmarked area of the lakebed. Peterson fired his landing rockets for additional lift, but the M2-F2 hit the lakebed at 250 mph before the landing gear was fully down and locked, rolled six times, and came to rest upside down. Peterson survived, but lost sight in his right eye.

You may not have heard of Bruce Peterson, but you're probably familiar with his crash of the M2-F2, although Peterson didn't appreciate being the inspiration and backstory for another fictitious NASA pilot who was badly hurt and lost an eye when his experimental aircraft crashed. Here he is.
posted by fandango_matt (17 comments total)

That last link really made the post; it is exactly what I thought of when reading about Peterson. It also reminded me of this post.
posted by TedW at 5:32 AM on May 4, 2006

Peterson was a manly, manly man. He'll be missed.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 6:03 AM on May 4, 2006

.
posted by Goofyy at 6:10 AM on May 4, 2006

Before fandango's post I was only vaguely aware of Peterson. Thanks for the background and highlighting the death of a truly brave man.
posted by piscatorius at 6:12 AM on May 4, 2006

I'm not sure if I made this clear, but the climatic first half of the video in the last link is footage of Bruce Peterson's (in)famous crash.
posted by fandango_matt at 6:13 AM on May 4, 2006

Don't we have the technology to rebuild him?
posted by bondcliff at 6:16 AM on May 4, 2006

Aha! Here's footage of Peterson experiencing lateral oscillation in the M2-F2--you'll see where it's been used in the opening part of the earlier video link.

Quicktime:
Small
Medium
Large
Whoa
posted by fandango_matt at 6:41 AM on May 4, 2006

It's a shame he didn't appreciate being the inspiration for the 6 Million Dollar man (although wasn't he actually the inspiration for the book Cyborg which was the inspiration for the show?), because Steve Austin was my hero when I was 6 years old, so to a certain extent so was Bruce Peterson.
posted by illovich at 7:55 AM on May 4, 2006

Illovich, you may be my lost twin. I remember looking forward to the eventual loss of legs, one arm and eye for bionic repalcement and practicing the raised eyebrow (with attendant sound effect). I had a huge crush on Lindsay Wagner/the Bionic Woman and made plans to join the Air Force. Alas, I was heartbroken when I was learned that Fighter Pilots must have perfect 20/20 vision (I wore glasses). Anyhow I still harbor a semi serious addiction to fighter plane and NASA space pr0n. /geek out

.
posted by Skygazer at 8:27 AM on May 4, 2006

My mother has a caricature of me as a kid (from Disney World or some amusement park we were at) dressed up as Steve Austin running 60 miles an hour.

I should dig it up. I'm sure that while to me it was a simple drawing of a heartfelt fantasy, to my mother it was an unintentionally funny metaphor for my ADHD, which was the bane of all adults doomed to supervise me.

Come to think of it, it was probably the root of my wanting to join the military too, all though it was blamed on G*I* JOE at the time.

And Lindsey Wagner was so hawt I couldn't even stand it.

Geek on, long lost twin.
posted by illovich at 9:17 AM on May 4, 2006

Now that's a cool obit post. Thanks.
posted by brain_drain at 9:28 AM on May 4, 2006

Add me to the list of Steve Austin wannabes. Had a brown corduroy jacket that I was sure was an exact replica of his that I wore when running at seventy miles an hour home from school.

That's quite incredible that that footage, which I watched every week as a kid, was the actual video of the crash. Awesome post.
posted by docpops at 9:31 AM on May 4, 2006

Ha, my mother got totally fed up with my 6 year old self for continuously lifting one eyebrow!
Just like de man van zes miljoen.

That title sequence was wonderful.
Now I know: it was based on this real fact.

Even then, though, I noticed that every time that Steve Austing had to jump 3 stories I just saw him flex his knees a bit at groundlevel and then I saw him flex his knees at the upper floor.

Those were some cheap effects.

Goldman, Oscar Goldman. I even remember the name of his boss character. Ha.
posted by jouke at 9:47 AM on May 4, 2006

We were big Steve Austin fans in our neighborhood too. One time the guy who lived across the street dug up an old 8mm camera and we made our own version of The Six Million Dollar Man, complete with cheesy special effects.

By the way, he would be the 28 million dollar man today.

Anyway, a much deserved (.) for Bruce Peterson.
posted by TedW at 9:59 AM on May 4, 2006

although wasn't he actually the inspiration for the book Cyborg which was the inspiration for the show?

Apparently, he was -- in fact, it's believed Caidin witnessed the crash. Caidin, once part of von Braun's rocketry team, had already written several aviation and space-themed books and had broad NASA access.

Cyborg is very much in the Clive Cussler tradition of quasi-military adventure stories, although it's much darker -- as I recall -- than stuff you see these days. I never read the sequels (my library only had the first one). Caidin also didn't make his hero into a superman, just a man with a few surprises up his sleeve.
posted by dhartung at 10:24 AM on May 4, 2006

How many of you praticed yanking your glasses off one-handed like Oscar Goldman?
posted by bwg at 3:28 PM on May 4, 2006

another fictitious NASA pilot

Good post, but I have a teeny tiny grammar nit-pick to make:

Drop "another" and make it "a fictitious NASA pilot". Another makes it sound as though Bruce Peterson were also fictional.

/insufferable nerd
posted by kayjay at 5:04 PM on May 4, 2006