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NASA. Number built. 3. The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, crossing the edge of outer space and returning ...
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 ...
An air speed record is the highest airspeed attained by an aircraft of a particular class. ... North American X-15: Rocket plane [72] 16 November 2004: Uncrewed: 6,755:
Shcramjet. v. t. e. A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typically for at most a few minutes of powered operation, followed by a gliding flight.
X-15: North American USAF, NASA 1959 Hypersonic, high-altitude flight First crewed hypersonic aircraft; capable of suborbital spaceflight. [25] X-15A-2: North American USAF, NASA 1964 Hypersonic, high-altitude flight Major Pete Knight flew the X-15A-2 to a Mach 6.70, making it the fastest piloted flight of the X-plane program. X-16: Bell USAF 1954
North American X-15A-2 just after white sealer painting on June 26, 1967. The North American X-15 's Flight 188 on October 3, 1967, was a record-setting flight. William J. Knight took the X-15A-2 hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft to 102,100 feet (31,100 meters) over Mud Lake, Nevada when Flight 188 reached a record-setting top speed of 4,520 ...
Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards. Joe Walker. X-15 Flight 91 was an August 22, 1963 American crewed sub-orbital spaceflight, and the second and final flight in the program to fly above the Kármán line, which was previously achieved during Flight 90 a month earlier by the same pilot, Joseph A. Walker. It was the highest flight of the X-15 program.
Crossfield flew 14 of the 199 total X-15 flight tests with most of these tests establishing and validating initial key parameters. Crossfield was not only involved with the design of X-15 from the beginning, but introduced many innovations, including putting engine controls of the rocket plane into the cockpit.