At the Edge of Space by Milton O. Thompson

Author:Milton O. Thompson [Thompson, Milton O.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58834-386-4
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2013-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

MY FIRST FLIGHT

My first flight in the X-15 was to be a major step up in performance compared to any previous aircraft that I had flown. However, it was a step down from the X-20 that I had been scheduled to fly. I did not get a chance to fly the X-20 but now at least I would fly the X-15.

On my first X-15 flight, I was scheduled to fly a rocket airplane to Mach 4.0 and then maneuver it in a glide to an honest-to-God unpowered landing. Prior to my first X-15 flight, I had never flown a rocket airplane. I had never flown faster than Mach 2 and I had never really made a deadstick landing in a high performance jet aircraft. I had made a deadstick landing in a T-33 after shutting the engine down due to a persistent overheat light, but I was over the lakebed when I shut the engine down, so it was a piece of cake. I had also made a couple of deadstick landings in crop dusting airplanes and some glide flights in our paraglider research vehicle and the lightweight M2-F1 lifting body, but all that deadstick landing experience was child’s play compared to the upcoming X-15 landing. I was graduating to the big league.

An X-15 landing was the ultimate in deadstick landings. The X-15 came down steeper and faster than any other existing aircraft and it landed a lot faster. According to the experts at Edwards, if you could deadstick the X-15, you could deadstick anything.

When I saw the flight plan for my first flight, I quickly realized it was going to be a real challenge. I was going to be dropped from a B-52 bomber 130 miles away from Edwards and I was going to have to learn to fly that airplane well enough in 6 minutes to be able to make a successful deadstick landing. Once I was dropped from that B-52, there was no turning back. I was on my own. I was going to be on the ground one way or another in less than 10 minutes. I would either make a successful landing, come down in a parachute, or wind up in a smoking hole. I could be forced to land at the launch lake due to no engine light, or I could be forced to make an emergency landing at an intermediate lake. The best I could hope for was a successful unpowered landing back at Edwards.

Where I landed depended mainly on the engine, although failures in other systems could dictate a premature landing short of Edwards. If the engine failed to light or did not develop full thrust, I would land at the launch lake. If the engine lit and developed full thrust but shutdown before I had enough energy to get to Edwards, I would probably end up at one of the intermediate lakes.

I had to consider and plan for each of these possibilities. I personally prayed that the flight would go smoothly according to plan.

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