Edwards loses pioneer from dawn of Space Age; Maj. Arthur K. "Kit" Murray dies at age 92 Published Aug. 3, 2011 By 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Team Edwards lost a pioneer from the dawn of the Space Age July 25 when former Air Force Maj. Arthur K. "Kit" Murray died in West, Texas, at age 92. During his 22-year military career Murray piloted both horses and rocket-powered aircraft. He was an experimental test pilot and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters. He was the first pilot to see the curvature of the earth and set an unofficial altitude record of more than 90,000 feet at over twice the speed of sound. He was a member of the Fellows of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and recipient of the French Medal of the City of Paris. In 1996, he was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, which honors test pilots who have contributed to aviation and space research and development. Murray was a test pilot at Edwards from 1946-1955. He performed the first powered flight of the Bell X-1B, flew a multitude of operational and preoperational aircraft: XB-43, B-45A, P84, P-86, SX-88, XF-89, XF-90, XF-92, XF-94, F-I00, F-IIF, F-104. During the X-I program, Major Murray became the first pilot to give outside help to an out-of-fuel rocket powered aircraft when the canopy of the X-I, piloted by Lt. Col. Frank K Everest, frosted over during a rapid descent. By maintaining close formation and radioing instructions from his F-86, Major Murray was able to direct Colonel Everest to a successful blind landing. He completed the Air Force testing of the XF-88 in 1949 and also contributed to the high altitude testing of the 1-35/1-47 jet engines for the Korean War in unpressurized flight of the XB-43 to 43,000 feet. Major Murray began his military career as a machine gunner with the l04th Cavalry in 1939. When the Army abandoned horses in 1941, he transferred to the Army Air Corps. Major Murray was awarded a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant in North Africa during World War II. He flew 50 combat missions in a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk in the Mediterranean Theater.