Stack, Chuck Yeager shared the award for their work on the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. 1948 – The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics for developing an air traffic control system. 1949 – William Lear for the development of the F-5 automatic pilot and automatic approach control coupler system. 1950 – The Helicopter Industry, the Military Services, and the Coast Guard – for development and use of rotary-wing aircraft for air rescue operations. 1951 – John Stack for the NACA Langley transonic wind tunnel. 1952 – Leonard S. Hobbs of United Aircraft Corp., for the design, development, and production of the Pratt & Whitney J57 jet engine. 1953 – James H. Kindelberger for North American Aviation's F-100 and Edward H. Heinemann for Douglas aircraft carrier based F4D. 1954 – Richard T. Whitcomb for his discovery of the area rule, a design method for supersonic aircraft. 1955 – Boeing's William M. Allen and General Nathan F. Twining USAF for the development, production, and operation of the B-52. 1956 – Charles J. McCarthy of Chance-Vaught Aircraft and Vice Admiral James S. Russell U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics for the F-8U Crusader the first operational aircraft capable of speeds exceeding . 1957 – Edward P. Curtis for "Aviation Facilities Planning," the long-range planning addressing problems with aircraft, air space, and facilities. 1958 – Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Skunk Works, and Gerhard Neumann and Neil Burgess of GE, for leadership in the development of the F-104 Starfighter and its J79 engine. 1959 – US Air Force, Convair Division of General Dynamics, and Space Technology Laboratories for the development of the Atlas missile 1960 – Vice Adm William F Raborn for directing the creation of the Polaris fleet ballistic missile system. 1961 – North American Aviation with Scott Crossfield, Joseph A. Walker, Robert Michael White and Forrest S. Petersen, X-15 test pilots. 1962 – Mercury Seven, group of first seven astronauts. 1963 – Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, for his leadership at Lockheed's Skunk Works in the development of the A-11 Mach 3 aircraft. 1964 – Curtis LeMay "for development of high performance aircraft, missiles and space systems." 1965 – James E. Webb and Hugh L. Dryden for the Project Gemini. 1966 – James McDonnell for development work in aeronautics and astronautics, specifically on the F-4 Phantom and Project Gemini space vehicles. 1967 – Lawrence "Pat" Hyland of Hughes Aircraft's Surveyor