At a very early age, astronaut Neil Armstrong was fascinated with flight. When he was 16 he earned his student’s pilot license, and in 1947 he went to Purdue University on a Navy scholarship to study aeronautical engineering. The Korean War brought his studies to an end in 1949, and he flew 78 combat missions as a U.S. Navy pilot. He parted from the military in 1952 and went back to college and joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) a few years later. Eventually known as NASA, Armstrong worked for the government agency in several different roles. As an engineer and test pilot, he operated the X-15, a high-speed aircraft with a top speed of 4,000 MPR.
