Real men of courage.
When we still did shit worth doing. The 1965 Suicide Pact was two years prior, but soon overwhelmed the nation as a whole.
“That stinks.”
Why? It’s great that it is in a museum.
Just put a warhead in its nose and you have a hypersonic missile. Problem solved!
(4,520 mph)
Aviation Ping!....................
SR-71 was the Blackbird. Our coffee mugs said Mach 6+. We were waiting for it, but it never deployed to my base, Homestead. SR-72 (son of Blackbird) should be something.
X-15 pilots:
A. Scott Crossfield, Joseph A. Walker, Robert M. White, Forrest S. Petersen, John B. McKay, Robert A. Rushworth, Neil A. Armstrong, Joe H. Engle, Milton O. Thompson, William J. “Pete” Knight, William H. Dana, and Michael J. Adams.
The only fatal accident during the X-15 program occurred on November 15, 1967, when Major Michael Adams was killed during the 191st flight. The X-15-3 aircraft, AF Ser. No. 56-6672, entered a hypersonic spin during descent and broke apart at 60,000 feet due to technical difficulties.
Joe Walker set the altitude record on 08/22/1963. 67.1 miles at 3,794 mph (Mach 5.58). Walker was killed on 06/08/1966 when his F-104N Starfighter chase aircraft collided with a North American XB-70 Valkyrie.
I knew one who helped develop the ablative coating...
The X-22 was the real, next-gen space plane. It was projected to have been orbital.
As it was, the X-15 had achieved higher altitude and longer duration than Alan Sheppard achieved in Mercury 1 some years later.
But by that time NASA had been invented and that agency was, ab initio, 100% focused on lunar expedition/landing.
A progression, Mercury - Gemini - Apollo - lunar orbit - lunar landing.
“a record for a crewed, powered aircraft that remains unbroken to this day.”
As far as we [and our enemies] are allowed to know...
Buzz Lightyear let Joe Biden pilot the X-15, true story man.
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.
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..