The North American X-15 ‘Rocket Plane’ Hit Mach 6.7 (All the Way Back in 1967)

National Security Journal ^ | 7/22/2025 | Christian D. Orr

[null and void]

“a record for a crewed, powered aircraft that remains unbroken to this day.”

As far as we [and our enemies] are allowed to know...

[tumblindice]

Buzz Lightyear let Joe Biden pilot the X-15, true story man.

[doorgunner69]

Yeah, and got so far off course he was almost going to have to contact L.A. approach control.

I gather he was washed out of the X-15 program.

.

[Yo-Yo]

This artifact is on display in a museum. That stinks.

Why does that stink? There were several X-15s built, and they were all rocket powered with about 10 minutes worth of fuel for powered flight.

They couldn't take off, but rather were launched at altitude from the wing of a B-52, and made unpowered (gliding) landings.

Other than as research vehicles exploring the realm of hypersonic flight, they had little practical military use.

[Mastador1]

Completely different type of aircraft no? One essentially just a rocket with a seat and required another aircraft to take it upstairs before it was released and lit its candle..

[TexasGator]

“One essentially just a rocket with a seat”

Rockets don’t have wings and landing gear.

[cpdiii]

Watching the replay of the Apollo 11 mission this weekend I realized that that America is long gone. It took energy, risk taking and focus to a level unrecognizable today. What they did, from the astronauts to the guy who swept the floors in Mission Control, is the greatest single achievement in the history of mankind. And it’s utterly impossible to do it or anything like it now.

Apollo 13 was NASA's greatest moment. Excellent engineers and out of the box thinking brought those doomed astronauts home, 99.9 percent doomed with certainty. Those boys on the ground found that 0.1% window and brought them home. Computers were primitive then. It was slide rule and paper mostly with some computer help. It was all amazing what they did. Houston Control did not have the luxury of months in planning this as most space missions were. They had hours. Once they swung around the moon the calculations had to be ready for return using the LEM as propulsion and new weights and calculations and trajectory. Houston did it. The astronauts were brave pilots. The engineers in Houston were absolute geniuses.

[The Duke]

"Rockets don’t have wings and landing gear."

Them "astronauts" wuz just Spam in a can if ya ask me!

[mabarker1]

When we still did shit worth doing

And stayed in or under Budget !!! And more than likely with a Private Company.

[Mastador1]

“ESSENTIALLY” it was rocket powered not jet. But you knew that.