Stanley P. Butchart; pilot tested airspeeds

NEW YORK - Stanley P. Butchart, a test pilot who flew and helped evaluate early rocket-powered aircraft in the 1950s, when he and fellow researchers were able to push the speed of an airplane past Mach 2, died last Monday in Lancaster, Calif. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by a spokesman for the Dryden Flight Research Center of NASA in Edwards, Calif., near Los Angeles.

In 1955, Mr. Butchart was testing the X-1A, a modified version of the rocket-powered experimental aircraft that another pilot, Chuck Yeager, had used to break the sound barrier in 1948.

The X-1A was attached to the belly of a larger plane that Mr. Butchart was flying, in preparation to being released in midair. But, before that could happen, an explosion forced the X-1A's pilot to escape into the mother aircraft. Mr. Butchart jettisoned the X-1A, which crashed and was destroyed, before landing safely. For his actions, he was awarded an Exceptional Service Medal by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which was reformed as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958.

In the same period, Mr. Butchart was part of a team that flew the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket, an innovative swept-wing airplane that is credited as the first to reach Mach 2, or 1,290 miles an hour, twice the speed of sound. In the 1960s, he helped develop the X-15, a high-altitude research plane that was flown to the limits of space, in flights that peaked near 350,000 feet. Again, Mr. Butchart was among the pilots of the mother aircraft, in this case a B-52 bomber, which carried the X-15 skyward.

In 1966, he was named chief pilot for the Dryden Center of NASA and later that year became director of flight operations. He continued to fly into the 1970s, and was a specialist in piloting the Lockheed JetStar, a four-engine business jet converted for aeronautical research. The plane could mimic the behavior of different aircraft reacting under varied stresses and conditions.

Stanley Paul Butchart was born in New Orleans. His college education was interrupted by the Second World War, when he flew torpedo bombers for the Navy in the Pacific Theater and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war, he studied engineering at the University of Washington, and maintained his friendship with a former squadron mate, George H.W. Bush. The men trained together before both were assigned to the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto.

Mr. Butchart retired from NASA in 1976. He was named president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 1980.

Mr. Butchart's wife of 57 years, the former Miriam Young, died in 2002.

He leaves two sons, Dale, of Lancaster, and Dean, of Bakersfield, Calif.; two daughters, Deborah Coye and Deidre Baron, both of Lancaster; a sister, Frances Mott of Langley, Wash.; three brothers, Clifford, of Barstow, Calif., Donald, of Florence, Ore., and Neil, of Issaquah, Wash.; 11 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.