Engle graduated from the University of Kansas with an Aeronautical Engineering degree and entered the U.S. Air Force flight school in 1957. He was assigned to fighter aircraft test projects, including numerous flights in the X-15, reaching Mach 5.71 at 280,600 feet. In 1966, Joe was back-up Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 14 mission, and commanded the initial Space Shuttle “Enterprise” flight tests, air launched from the Boeing 747.  In 1981, Engle commanded the second orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle “Columbia”, and became the first pilot to manually fly an aerospace vehicle during re-entry. In 1985, Joe was the Commander of the Space Shuttle “Discovery” which deployed three communication satellites. During his 30-plus years in hypersonic aircraft industry, Engle logged 13,000 flight hours, and has flown more than 170 different types of aircraft, including 34 different types of fighters.