Major Adams Monument in Johannesburg, California

Atlas Obscura tells the story behind a lonely monument in the California desert near Johannesburg, marking the crash site of Air Force Major Michael Adams, the twelfth and final pilot of the X-15 rocket plane program. The X-15 was carried aloft under a modified B-52, then released to fire its rocket engine and climb toward the edge of space. On his seventh flight, in November nineteen sixty-seven, a malfunctioning instrument motor triggered an electrical failure that left Adams unaware of his craft's attitude. The plane entered a hypersonic spin, and though he managed to stop the rotation, he could not raise the nose as it plunged and disintegrated under aerodynamic stress, scattering debris across miles of desert. Adams is now remembered as the first in-flight fatality of the US space program, and the memorial, built in two thousand four as an Eagle Scout project, stands where the forward fuselage came to rest.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton