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Twelve pilots flew the X-15 over the course of its career. Scott Crossfield and William Dana flew the X-15 on its first and last free flights, respectively. Joseph Walker set the program's top two altitude records on its 90th and 91st free flights (347,800 and 354,200 feet, respectively), becoming the only pilot to fly past the Kármán line, the 100 kilometer, FAI-recognized boundary of outer ...
[25] [26] Forrest S. Petersen, the only Navy pilot in the X-15 program, never took the aircraft above the requisite altitude and thus never earned astronaut wings. Of the thirteen flights, only two – flights 90 and 91, piloted by Walker – exceeded the 100 km (62 mi) altitude used by the FAI to denote the Kármán line .
Engle was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA. As an X-15 pilot, Engle made three flights above 50 miles, thus qualifying for astronaut wings under the American convention for the boundary of space.
William John "Pete" Knight (November 18, 1929 – May 7, 2004) (Col, USAF) was an American aeronautical engineer, politician, Vietnam War combat pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15 , an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the U.S. Air Force and NASA .
During the X-15 program, eight pilots flew above 264,000 feet or 50 miles, thereby qualifying as astronauts according to the United States definition of the space border. Of these pilots, five were active-duty Air Force personnel who were awarded military astronaut wings contemporaneously with their achievements. However, the other three ...
Robert Michael White (July 6, 1924 – March 17, 2010) (Maj Gen, USAF) [2] was an American electrical engineer, test pilot, fighter pilot, and astronaut. [3] [4] He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA.
The X-15 was also NASA's first space vehicle (the Mercury capsule flew into space first, but the X-15 was airborne before Big Joe 1). The Flight landed at Edwards Air Force Base . With this White was the first test pilot qualifying for his astronaut wings .
Three veteran NASA X-15 pilots (John B. McKay, William H. Dana and Joseph Albert Walker) were retroactively (two posthumously) awarded their astronaut wings, as they had flown between 90 km (56 miles) and 108 km (67 miles) during the 1960s, but at the time had not been recognized as astronauts. [11]