06/10/2026
NEIL ARMSTRONG – A BRIEF AVIATION HISTORY
FIRST PLANE RIDE
Six-year-old Neil Armstrong took his first airplane flight from Warren Airways in Warren, Ohio – the flight that inspired his love of aviation.
PILOT LICENSE
He began taking flying lessons when he was fifteen and a year later earned his pilot’s license. He was licensed to fly before he could drive earning his student pilot’s license on his 16th birthday, before he was legally allowed to get a learner’s permit to drive a car.
EDUCATION
Armstrong graduated from Blume High School in Wapakoneta in 1947 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1955. In 1970, he completed a Master of Science degree from the University of Southern California. He was awarded honorary doctorates from a number of universities.
NAVAL AVIATOR
From 1949 to 1952, Armstrong was a naval aviator and flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War. In 1955 he joined NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), working as a research pilot at the Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio. Later that year Armstrong transferred to the NACA High-Speed Flight Station (now the Dryden Flight Research Center) at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He was a project pilot on many pioneering high-speed aircraft, including seven flights on the X-15, exceeding 4,000 mph. He flew over 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, rockets, helicopters, and gliders.
GEMINI ASTRONAUT
In 1962, Armstrong earned astronaut status. His first spaceflight was on March 16, 1966, as the Command Pilot of Gemini VIII (David Scott was Pilot for the mission). Armstrong performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space during the ten-hour flight.
APOLLO 11 COMMANDER
On July 16, 1969, Armstrong commanded Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission that blasted off from Kennedy Space Center. Four days later, on July 20, he gained the distinction of being the first man to land a craft on the Moon and the first man to step on its surface. Lunar Module pilot “Buzz” Aldrin, accompanied him to the lunar surface aboard the Lunar Module Eagle while Command Module pilot Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the Command Module Columbia.
NASA ADMINISTRATOR
From 1970 to 1971, Armstrong was Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics at the NASA Headquarters Office of Advanced Research and Technology. In this position, he was responsible for the coordination and management of overall NASA research and technology work related to aeronautics.
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
PROFESSOR OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
Armstrong resigned from NASA in 1971, and then completed his career as a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979.
