Posted on 03/24/2010 8:43:03 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
In the cockpit of the sleek, black aircraft slung underneath the wing of the B-52 bomber, my interphone crackles. "Ah, Robert, it’s a lovely morning," says Jack Allavie, the commander of the B-52 launch aircraft.
"Yes it is, Jack," I respond while running through the preflight checklist for our July 17, 1962 mission.
The North American Aircraft X-15 was designed to investigate flight at hypersonic (Mach 5-plus) speeds and extremely high altitudes, and the effects of aerodynamic heating on aircraft surfaces. It was the first aircraft to fly Mach 4, Mach 5, and Mach 6—and I had the good fortune to be the pilot of these flights. I was also the first to fly faster than 3,000 mph and the first to fly above 200,000 feet. Today we would try to best that altitude by another 100,000 feet.
I finish the checklist. The flight has been aborted three times, so the crew—drop pilots Allavie and Harry Archer and panel operator Stan Butchart—is anxious to get it going today. Fellow X-15 pilot Joe Walker will be "NASA 1," mission control on the ground. Walker and I, with Scott Crossfield and Forrest Peterson, are to fly to Washington, D.C., later today to meet with President Kennedy. He’ll present us with the Collier Trophy for our work with the X-15 program—a grand honor, as the trophy is awarded for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics…in America" each year.
this is cool.....the X15 was an awesome looking aircraft.
I was 11 at the time and my Dad worked in aerospace, so he kept me busy with aircraft models and flipping through his Aviation Week magazines. Those were great times in aviation, that’s for sure.
Today all we get is further and further contraction. Cancellation of spacecraft, of the F22, retirement of the shuttle fleet, abandonment of the moon again, etc. What a downer compared to those magical years when America was at the top of its game.
But I have never heard it described as "sleek".
9/10ths ballistic missile with just enough blunt stubby wing to classify it as an airplane.
Flying stovepipe, maybe, but not "sleek".
I worled on the Shuttle project early 70s. It was not intended to fly this long, but the replacement craft never arrived.
I love articles like this. It opens a window to when we were a great country, and we all knew it.
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