Quinten 'QB' H. Burden 1919-2013

Quentin H. “QB” Burden  was born on 2 May 1919 in Coeur d’Alene, ID and passed away on Tuesday, June 11 2013 . He was a Charter Member of  SETP.

QB served in the U.S. Navy from 1941-1946.  He joined the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1950 as an engineering and production test pilot on the AD, F-3D and A-3D airplanes.  He attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as a contractor pilot and graduated with Class 14.  He was subsequently assigned as an A-3D Engineering Project Test Pilot from 1955 to 1959 performing 5 complete A-3D structural and 4 aerodynamic demonstrations.  In 1969, he was assigned to the DC-8 program and performed the flutter flight test program, the minimum landing distance and engine air starts.

Quentin transferred to Lockheed as a project test pilot at the Missiles and Space Company and performed the first flight on the QT-2 airplane, a forerunner of Stealth airplanes for the Army.  He performed the structural, aerodynamic and engine demonstrations in addition to the extensive acoustical signature research program.  In 1968, he flew the first flight of the Q-Star, a Lockheed test bed for exploration of airborne micro acoustic signature phenomena.  He flew extensive flight test of power plants including an airplane version of the Wright-Rotary Engine.  In 1969, he repeated the same test programs for the YO-3A.

QB was twice assigned as a technical advisor to the U.S. Army Covert Aviation Systems Command in Southeast Asia, furthering the research and development of various Lockheed airplanes and weapons systems under actual combat conditions.  He later became the Chief Engineering Test Pilot for Lockheed’s Missiles and Space Company until his retirement in 1982.