Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The X-15's highest speed, ... The X-15 had an ejection seat designed to operate at speeds up to Mach 4 ... Rate of climb: 60,000 ft/min ...
The external tanks were jettisoned 67.4 seconds after launch at a speed of Mach 2.0 and 70,000 feet. The total engine burn time during the flight was 141.4 seconds. After Flight 188, 11 more X-15 flights were made before the program was retired. The X-15 program data was used in the planning of future aircraft and spacecraft designs.
On October 3, 1967, Knight piloted X-15 Flight 188, the program's fastest flight. Flying at a maximum Mach of 6.7 and a maximum speed of 4,520 mph (7,274 km/h), he set a speed record for flight in a winged, powered aircraft. [1] The flight was made in the X-15A-2, the second of three planes in the X-15 fleet.
At Mach 0.65, u is 65% of the speed of sound (subsonic), and, at Mach 1.35, u is 35% faster than the speed of sound (supersonic). An F/A-18 Hornet creating a vapor cone at transonic speed just before reaching the speed of sound. The local speed of sound, and hence the Mach number, depends on the temperature of the surrounding gas.
In February 1961, White unofficially set a new air speed record when he flew the X-15 at a speed of 2,275 mph (3,661 km/h), following the installation of a 57,000 lbf (250 kN) thrust XLR-99 engine. White was the first human to fly an aircraft at Mach 4 and later Mach 5 over the next eight months.
In this instance, NASA claims that Mach 6.7 equals 7 274 km/h. You won't find that conversion from ANY conversion tool available online today. Not even Google can come-up with it. The argument that both altitude and temperature affect Mach speed is correct. These same conditions affect just the same speed measured in km/h.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
The retirement of the X-15 (due to funding cutbacks) after its record-setting Mach 6.70 (4,520 mph) [12] [13] flight prompted pilot Pete Knight to remark that he would have pushed it to even faster speeds if he knew it was the last flight. In his remarks to a number of aviation groups, Crossfield cited the X-15 as one of few aircraft that ...