Amazing Stories of the Space Age by Rod Pyle

Author:Rod Pyle
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781633882225
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2017-02-18T05:00:00+00:00

Fig. 13.1. A cutaway view of the X-15B orbital spaceplane. Note the second crew member, seated snugly behind the first, to left. The X-15B would have been, in many ways, a new aircraft built on designs proven for high-speed flight, but not orbital reentry. Image from NASA.

Even without an orbital variant, the X-15 program excelled and flew until 1968. The rocket plane developed and proved many technologies critical to hypersonic flight and paved the way for the space shuttle in the 1980s. Advanced versions of the X-15, equipped with the external fuel tanks intended to fly on the X-15B, increased its performance greatly, pushing the envelope of what the rocket plane was capable of. It was a wildly successful effort on a shoestring budget.

And what did the pilots think? Joe Engle cited the X-15 as one of his favorite flight programs (impressive, coming from a man who flew the space shuttle), and Scott Crossfield famously said that the X-15 was one of the few aircraft that could cause grown men to cry upon its retirement. That says it all.

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