http://www.damninteresting.com/rider-on-the-storm/

In the summer of 1959, a pair of F-8 Crusader combat jets were on
a routine flight to Beaufort, North Carolina with no particular designs on
making history. The late afternoon sunlight glinted from the silver and orange
fuselages as the US Marine Corps pilots flew high above the Carolina coast at
near the speed of sound. The lead jet was piloted by 39-year-old Lt Col William
Rankin, a veteran of both World War 2 and the Korean War. He was accompanied by
his wingman, Lt Herbert Nolan. The pilots were cruising at 47,000 feet to stay
above a large, surly-looking column of cumulonimbus cloud which was amassing
about a half mile below them, threatening to moisten the officers upon their
arrival at the air field.