Peter Girard

Peter Girard
Girard with the Ryan X-13 Vertijet in 1955, shortly after its first conventional flight.
Born	(1918-05-05)May 5, 1918 Monterey, California
Died	February 12, 2011(2011-02-12) (aged 92) La Mesa, California
Nationality	American

Peter Frank "Pete" Girard (May 5, 1918 – February 12, 2011) was a United States Army Air Corps pilot, Chief Engineering Test Pilot for Ryan Aeronautical, and the first man to hover in jet vertical flight. This feat was accomplished November 24, 1953 during tests that would culminate in the development of the Ryan X-13 Vertijet. He would later accomplish the first full-cycle vertical takeoff, horizontal flight, and vertical landing in a jet aircraft on April 11, 1957 at Edwards Air Force Base. Prior to working with Ryan, Girard had worked at Curtiss-Wright in St. Louis, Missouri and served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator pilot.

Born in 1918 in Monterey, California, Girard was raised on a cattle ranch, first in Cachagua and then in Tularcitos, in the Carmel Valley near the Central Coast of California. Girard was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in mechanical engineering, class of 1940. While working at Curtiss-Wright he joined a cadre of like-minded engineers who learned to fly in gliders purchased by the group. During World War II Girard enlisted in what was then the United States Army Air Corps, and advanced through flight training becoming a multi-engine heavy bomber pilot flying B-24s. He mustered out of the Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant at San Bernardino, California.