Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr.

Iven Carl "Kinch" Kincheloe Jr. (July 2, 1928 – July 26, 1958 ), (Capt, USAF), was an American test pilot, recipient of the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross, aeronautical engineer, and an ace in the Korean War.

Early life and education
Kincheloe was born July 2, 1928, in Detroit, Michigan but grew up in Cassopolis, Michigan. He was the only child of Iven C. Kincheloe Sr. (1894–1966) and Frances Wilder Kincheloe. He was interested in aircraft from a very young age. Following his high school graduation in 1945, he attended Purdue University. He joined the ROTC, was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon-Indiana Alpha fraternity, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1949. In the summer of 1948, the ROTC cadet was able to meet Chuck Yeager and sit in the cockpit of the Bell X-1.

Korean War
After graduating in 1949, Kincheloe received his commission in the U.S. Air Force. After receiving his pilot wings in August 1950, he spent a year as a test pilot flying the F-86E at Edwards Air Force Base, California before being promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to Korea in September 1951. During the war, he flew F-80s on 30 combat missions and F-86s on 101 combat missions, downing five MiG-15s (becoming an ace and earning the Silver Star) before returning to the U.S. in May 1952. At this time, he had reached the rank of captain.

Post-war career
After the war, first he worked as a gunnery instructor at the Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Then, he again became a test pilot, graduating in December 1954 from the Empire Test Pilots' School at Farnborough, England. He participated in the testing of the Century Series of fighter aircraft (F-100 Super Sabre, F-101 Voodoo, F-102 Delta Dagger, F-104 Starfighter, F-105 Thunderchief, and F-106 Delta Dart). In the mid-1950s, Kincheloe joined the Bell X-2 program and on September 7, 1956, flew at more than 2000 mi/h and to a height of 126200 ft (some sources list 126,500 ), the first flight ever above 100,000 feet. For this he was nicknamed "America's No. 1 Spaceman". The X-2 program was halted just three weeks later after a fatal crash resulted in the death of Mel Apt in a flight in which Apt became the first person to exceed Mach 3. Three years later, Kincheloe was selected as one of the first three pilots in the next rocket-powered aircraft program, the X-15, and would have been part of the Man In Space Soonest project.

He was killed in the crash of an F-104A at Edwards AFB, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. He was only 30 years old and was survived by wife, Dorothy, their young son, Iven, III, and a daughter who was born two months later, Jeannine.

Legacy

 * In September 1959, Kincheloe Air Force Base in Michigan's Upper Peninsula was renamed in his honor; the base closed in September 1977.
 * A monument stands approximately 1-1/2 miles east of his hometown of Cassopolis, Michigan; it is an angular stone slab twelve feet high bearing a silver model of the X-2 pointed skyward.
 * Kincheloe Elementary School, part of the nearby Dowagiac Union School District, is named in his honor.
 * The television program Hogan's Heroes featured a character called Staff Sergeant James Kinchloe, played by Ivan Dixon.
 * In 1992, he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.
 * In 2011, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
 * The Iven C. Kincheloe Award is named in his honor.
 * The Purdue University Arnold Air Society squadron is named in his honor.