James D. "Jim" Eastham

1924 - 2016

James D. "Jim" Eastham

A Memorial Service for James D. "Jim" Eastham will be held Saturday, January 9, 2016, at 1:00 p.m., at Robert Barham Family Funeral Home, with Dr. John Temple officiating.
James D. Eastham was born at home on June 18, 1924, to James and Amma Eastham. The family made their home at 926 N. Main in El Dorado, Kansas.
Having served as a pilot during World War II and the Korean Conflict, Jim went on to accomplish many record-breaking aviation feats, including being the first pilot to fly the YF-12A, second pilot to fly the SR-71 and third pilot to fly the A-12. He was the chief test pilot during the testing of the Convair YB58A, and authored the YF-12 flight manual.
He was a member of the Pi Tau Sigma, a mechanical engineering honorary fraternity, and served as its president; also, he was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He also has been a member of the Stenis Air Service "Skytyping" group for twenty years, which operated the SNJ-2 (AT-6). He holds a fellowship in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He has been inducted into the Blackbird Laurels Fraternity, an elite honor society founded by the Flight Test Historical Foundation.
In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Corp reserve program, entering the CPT program under the sponsorship of the Civil Aviation Authority. He attended six different civilian flying schools, followed by the Army Air Corp's Central Instructors School in Randolph, Texas. Following graduation from this latest school, he worked as the primary instructor at Mustang Field, located in El Reno, Oklahoma.
In 1944, Jim was called to active duty with the Army Air Corp. Assigned to European comman (USAFE), he flew P-51s in the 55th and 31st Fighters Groups. He also served as a GCI controller in an early warning radar unit.
He flew C-47 aircraft with the 60th Troop Carrier Group and was one of the original pilots of the Berlin Airlift. He flew A-26, F-6, and B-17 aircraft with the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, and also flew the P-47 with the 86th Fighter Group.
He then entered the Georgia Institute of Technology to study mechanical engineering. In 1950, his education was interrupted when he was recalled to active duty with the USAF during the Korean Conflict. He flew f-84s with the 31st Strategic Fighter Wing, from bases in the United States and Japan. Released from active duty in December of 1952, he re-entered Georgia Tech. While there, he made the Dean's list every year. His special field of expertise was that of heat transfer.
Jim continued flying in the Air Force Reserve. In September of 1953, he became a member of the "Caterpillar Club" after bailing out of a T-28 as it exploded. He flew F-84s as a member of Georgia's Air National Guard from 1954 to 1956.
In October of 1956, Jim joined the experimental flight test department of the Hughes Aircraft Co., as Project Test Pilot on the Falcon Missile Program at White Sands Missile Test Range. 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 worked on development of 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, becoming involved in the Blackbird program. He was the third pilot to fly the A-12, the original version of the famed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. He was the second pilot to fly the SR-71.
Jim flew the YB-58, A-12, and YF-12A programs while working simultaneously for both Hughes and Lockheed. On August 7, 1963, he was the first to fly the YF-12A, equipped with a streamlined camera pod mounted underneath each engine nacelle for photographing AIM-47 missile launches. Three of these aircraft were built. Jim was the Lockheed Project Test Pilot on all phases of this program.
In February of 1964, in a remote location over New Mexico, the A-12 reached the speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude of 83,000 ft., sustaining the same speed for over 10 minutes by pilot James D. Eastham, setting a new world record. 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.
On May 1, 1965, Jim 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.
Jim Eastham accumulated approximately 10,000 hours of total flying time, with more than 4,000 hours spent in single and multi-engine jets. He has flown and flight-tested the F-2H "Banshee", F-3H "Demon", F-100, F-101, F-104, F-106, B-57, B-58, A-12, YF-12A, and SR-71. In 1964, Jim became the recipient of the Ivan Kincheloe Award for his work on the YF12A (A-11) Lockheed Super-Secret Project. This award recognizes outstanding professional accomplishment in the conduct of flight testing. Established in 1958 by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, it honors the memory of test pilot and Korean Conflict ace Ivan C. Kincheloe, USAF, who died during flight testing.
Jim has been awarded the Blackbird Laurels Medallion after induction into the Blackbird Laurels Fraternity.
In 2002, he was inducted into the Kansas Aviation Hall of Fame. In 2003 came induction into the NASA Aerospace Walk of Honor, honoring aviation pioneers in Lancaster, California.
He joined the Garrett Corp. in 1967 and retired in 1987 and lived in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, until 2012, when he moved to Meridian, Mississippi. He also retired with the rank of Major from the US Air Force Reserve. Please sign the guest book at www.dailybreeze.com/obits.