Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Rankin gently pulled back the stick of his F-8 Crusader to put the single-engine supersonic fighter jet on a steady climb. His goal was to go over the ominous looking cumulonimbus thunderstorm cloud that was forming just ahead of him. He had been inside a thundercloud before and the experience was so violent that nobody ever had to remind him again to avoid thunderclouds.

Rankin watched his altimeter as the jet continued to gather altitude. At 45,000 feet he could still see the wispy tops of the storm. He let his jet climb. At 48,000 feet, he was now well over the top of the storm. Rankin’s fingers eased on the stick and the jet levelled off. His wingman, Lt Herbert Nolan, who was following Rankin on another Crusader did the same.

A cumulonimbus cloud. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons