Kenneth Oscar Chilstrom (April 20, 1921 – December 3, 2022) was a United States Air Force officer, combat veteran, test pilot, and author.

He flew over eighty combat missions in the Italian Campaign of World War II and tested over twenty foreign models of German and Japanese fighters and bombers to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

[1] He developed an interest in aviation at an early age and began building model airplanes while still in grade school in Chicago, Illinois.

[5] Chilstrom strongly desired a position in flight test at Dayton, Ohio's Wright Field—the dream job of many fighter pilots.

[4] During his seven years in flight test, Chilstrom flew 147 different aircraft including X, Y, and production models from the United States, Germany, and Japan.

[1] Many German and Japanese aircraft captured during World War II were sent to Wright Field, and Chilstrom had the opportunity to fly and evaluate over twenty different models including the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the Messerschmitt Me 262, the A6M Zero, and the Kawasaki Ki-45 Nick.

[7] Chilstrom was landing at Wright Field when the elevator trim switch malfunctioned causing the nose to pitch up while the Fw 190 was dangerously close to the ground.

He was in charge of a very select group of pilots including Richard Bong, John T. Godfrey, Bob Hoover, Don Gentile, Steve Pisanos, and Chuck Yeager.

[20] In the summer of 1949 he took his wife to Hollywood and at Warner Bros. Studios he was the technical advisor on the movie Chain Lightning starring Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, and Eleanor Parker.

[4] In 1950, Chilstrom reluctantly left flight test to work as the Fighter Requirements officer at headquarters, Far East Air Forces.

In 1958, Chilstrom was promoted to Colonel and returned to Wright Field as the program manager for the F-108 Rapier, a long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft.

[1] He retired from the Air Force in January 1964 after 25 years of service[4] and worked in the aircraft industry for a number of companies including General Electric, Boeing-Vertol, Science Applications International Corporation, and Pratt & Whitney.

[30] In 2016, Chilstrom traveled to Wright-Patterson AFB to attend the grand opening of a new building at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

[34] During his combat tour in World War II, Chilstrom earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters.