Neil Armstrong's journey from naval aviator to test pilot paved the way for his historic Apollo 11 mission and the first steps on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong — who has died at the age of 82 — was best known as the commander of Apollo 11, but his career at NASA began nearly a decade earlier as a research test pilot. A trained ...

Before he made history on the moon, Neil Armstrong was famous among military aviators for his bold test flights and his ‘steel trap of a mind.’ Taylor Dinerman talks to Buzz Aldrin about his ...

In this 1960 photo from the U.S. space agency, NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong is seen here next to the X-15 ship #1 after a research flight. Armstrong was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952.

Armstrong, 82, died Saturday after surgery earlier this month for blocked arteries. A fighter pilot in the Korean War, a test pilot and an engineering professor, he will also be remembered as the ...

Portrait of Neil Armstrong in 1958, as a youthful-looking test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of California. (NASA) Getty Images April 20, 1962 ...

— -- As the nation mourns one of its heroes, historians and other admirers say Neil Armstrong should be celebrated as more than just the first man on the moon. Astronaut, aviator and teacher ...

In 1962, test pilots Jim Bailey and Neil Armstrong wrote letters nominating each other for the prestigious Chanute Flight Award. Armstrong won that year, but Bailey received the honor in 1979.

A test pilot for 18 years in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Air Force ... NASA research pilot Neil Armstrong is seen here in the cockpit of one of the three X-15 rocket planes after a research ...

Armstrong was a Navy bombing pilot, flying 78 missions before the age of 23. He was also a test pilot in the 1950s and ’60s, pushing his experimental planes literally to the breaking point.