McMurtry joined
NASA as a research
test pilot in 1967. The first project he was assigned to as the project pilot was the F-8
Supercritical Wing project. He flew its first flight on 9 March 1971 and that of the
NASA AD-1 on 21 December 1979. He was project pilot on the
TF-8A Supercritical Wing testbed and the AD-1. He was co-project pilot on the
F-8 Digital
Fly-By-Wire Airplane, the
747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and performed digital electronic
F-15 engine efficiency control tests. On 26 November 1975, the
X-24B dropped from the sky for the last time, piloted on its 36th flight by McMurtry. McMurtry co-piloted the 747 Carrier Aircraft as it transported the
Space Shuttle Enterprise to its first launch on 12 August 1977. McMurtry logged over 11,000 hours of flying time since earning his pilot's wings in 1958. A graduate of the
United States Naval Test Pilot School, he has flown many aircraft including the
U-2, X-24B,
F-8A, AD-1,
YF-12C,
F-104, and F-15. McMurtry became chief research test pilot and then Chief of the Research Aircraft Division for the
NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility. He eventually rose to be the Director for Flight Operations at the NASA
Dryden Flight Research Center, and retired on June 3, 1999, after 32 years of service and one day shy of his 64th birthday. ==Retirement==