posted 06-08-2009 03:29 PM               

Launching Scotty on that flight were Charlie Bock and Jack Allavie. We lost Scotty just over three years ago when his Cessna came down in Georgia and we also lost Jack in August 2006. I have nothing but admiration for all that were involved in the X-15 program.

In memory of the pilots selected to fly the X-15:

• Iven Kincheloe
  
• Mike Adams - Astronaut
  
• Joe Walker - Astronaut
  
• Jack McKay - Astronaut
  
• Forrest Petersen
  
• Bob Rushworth - Astronaut
  
• Milt Thompson
  
• Pete Knight - Astronaut
  
• Scott Crossfield
  
• Al White

posted 06-08-2009 03:31 PM               

The main reason why it took so long to get from page to hardware were the unknowns. Every little thing from rivet to the APU's to spacesuit had to be developed from scratch.

Do you know why the Mercury astronauts had silver suits? They were adapted from the X-15 design.

Few know that the original X-15 proposal called for just normal flight suits. It was Scott Crossfield who championed the creation of those first 'space suits' from his knowledge of the needs for pilots at that high altitude.

posted 06-12-2009 08:30 AM               

I do believe the X-15 program is arguably the one program that was the most succesful of all flight test programs. It's investigation into hypersonic flight paved the way for many things, not the least of which was our space program.

Dennis Jenkins's talk last October at Dryden about the program was significant in that he compared that program to the Constellation program of today.

When the X-15 pranged, they figured it out, fixed it and did it again. No committees, no investigations, just a bunch of guys with wrenches, short sleeves, ties and pocket protectors. They got to work and Bobs your Uncle.

Today? When something goes awry, it's form a committee to see if a committee needs to be formed to investigation a committees need. After hearing his talk, it makes you wonder if it'll ever get off the ground.

posted 09-17-2009 11:49 PM               

Fifty years ago in 1959, test pilot Scott Crossfield threw the switch to ignite the twin XLR-11 engines of his North American Aviation X-15 rocket plane and begin the storied test program's first powered flight.

It was a real kick in the pants.

"The drop from the B-52 carrier aircraft was pretty abrupt, and then when you lit that rocket a second or two later you definitely felt it,” said Joe Engle, another X-15 test pilot and member of the same exclusive fraternity of flyboys that included Crossfield and the eventual first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. All took the X-15 to speeds and altitudes that extended the frontiers of flight.

The X-15 was a research scientist's dream. The experimental, rocket-boosted aircraft flew 199 flights with 12 different pilots at the controls from 1959 through 1968. It captured vital data on the effects of hypersonic flight on man and machine that proved invaluable to the nation's aeronautics researchers, including NASA and developers of the space shuttle.

"That first powered flight was a real milestone in a program that we still benefit from today," said Engle.

Engle knows what he's talking about.

posted 09-18-2009 01:30 PM               

It is amazing that with the X-15's first flights in 1959 we brought in an age of going into space that culminated 10 years later with the first landing on the moon by one of her pilots - Neil Armstrong.

Also her flights ended on the day before man left for the Moon the first time, Dec. 20, 1968 after a last attempt to fly her on her 200th flight had to be aborted as it snowed - SNOWED! - in the high Mojave desert at Edwards.

"I felt that this was a sign that we should not try for the 200th flight" said Paul Bickle, the X-15 NASA Manager, and director of Dryden research center.

posted 09-18-2009 07:11 PM               

I just finished reading the book "Hypersonic: The Story of the North American X-15". I picked it up while at the Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton two weeks ago where I was able to see the X-15A2 up close.

I was really amazed when looking through the cockpit window at how little head room there is. The clearance between the canopy frame and helmet must have been about an inch on either side.