HYPERSONIC – The Story of the North American X-15

On 14 April 1981, the Space Shuttle Columbia glided to a landing on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Other rocket planes had landed there before; one of them was the small, black, rocket-powered, bullet-shaped X-15. Nineteen years before Space Shuttle, the X-15 showed it was possible to fly into – and back from – space. That the Air Force, NACA, and North American Aviation could conceive and build a hypersonic aircraft in less than five years is amazing. In 1954 the X-planes at Edwards had just broken Mach 2.0, although the X-2 was expected to reach Mach 3 – eventually. The space age was still a dream. As Neil Armstrong once observed, ‘At the time it seemed audacious. It had taken half a century for aircraft to reach Mach 2 and 80,000 feet.

Now one new design would attempt to triple those achievements. ’There had never been anything like the X-15; it had a million-horsepower engine and could fly twice as fast as a rifle bullet. The aeroplane and its pilots set records that stood for years – in fact, one still stands. Twelve men flew the X-15. Scott Cross-field was first; Bill Dana was last.

Pete Knight went more than 4,500 miles per hour; Joe Walker flew more than 67 miles high. But the aeroplane and the men who flew it were quickly over-ISBN 978-1-58007-131-4978158007131452695 shadowed by the astronauts and ballistic missiles at Cape Canaveral. The grand experiment in the high desert was soon forgotten.

X-15 PHOTO SCRAPBOOK In this book, Dennis R. Jenkins and Tony R. Landis cover the entire story: the establishment of the new science of hypersonic; the Project 1226 competition that led to the X-15; the design, construction, and systems of the three black air– planes; and the most productive flight research program ever undertaken.

More than 550 photos, many in colour, along with a detailed summary of every X-15 flight round out this comprehensive look at one of the most significant research aeroplanes ever flown, a vehicle whose accomplishments are still impressive almost 50 years later.