Detailed tour around the only X-15 on display in the world.

Join me in this guided tour around the MACH 6.7 North American X-15A-2 on display at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio. Includes the cockpit and the Reaction Motors XLR-99. X-15 documentary.

Thumbnail photo credit: National Museum of the US Air Force

Other videos:

0:00 intro
0:32 background
2:25 nose and q ball
3:20 reaction control system
3:50 nose landing gear
4:20 cockpit and ejection seat
6:45 windows and shutters
7:45 multiple storage tanks
8:40 aeroynamic heating and inconel x
9:20 wing
9:50 tail and ventral fin
10:42 horizontal stabiliser
11:35 tail end and engine
12:40 rear landing gear
13:12 Reaction Motors XLR-99 rocket engine
14:25 testing for space and military equipment
14:55 records

[PaulStewartAviation]

Correction: the First flight was on 8 June 1959

[jim]

The pilots joked that it was the only airplane that you were happy when the engine quit!

[ivangottapseudonym]

Authenticity is why I prefer Paul, to any sort of AI text reader. I don't need perfection, I do want humanity.

[ExUSSailor]

They did this at a time when a computer the size of your living room was about as powerful as a pocket calculator. That groundbreaking aircraft was designed at drafting tables, on paper, with sliderules, pencils, and, sheer brilliance. And, then, it was flown by men who had balls of solid rock!

[stevearnold]

My father was one of the countless 1000's of people that worked on the X-15. He was an employee of North American and went on to work on the gyroscope system used in the first spacewalks in the Gemini program. While I was estranged from him for many years before reconciling our differences, I was always proud of his contributions to the space program! He passed away many years ago and I regret not having had more knowledge of his work.

[iwjxkry]

Ten Thousand Thumbs Up Paul. This is by miles and miles the best in-depth video I’ve seen on the X 15. I’m almost seventy and can still remember building the Revell model kit of the futuristic machine with my Dad! Good memories. Thanks Paul

[BlakeAStoffel]

It also makes sense that left window was chosen because I believe the arrival turn was generally left so they could see the landing area and judge the approach.

[timgosling]

There is another allocated to the National Air and Space Museum in DC but it is currently off being restored.

[randymoffatt]

Thank you for this in depth video. The X15, as well as the entire X plane program, does not get the respect it deserves. I saw the Smithsonian’s X-15 on display several years ago and it brought back great memories of when I was growing up in the high desert. My uncle Jack Moise was on the X-15 crew when Crossfield was flying it for North American. The one at the Smithsonian is the one Crossfield slammed down on the lake bed and broke it in half. My Dad also worked on the X plane program and was Armstrong’s crew chief on the X-1E before he was hired away by GE and put to work on the space program. What an amazing time that was.

[samspade]

I got to see the X-15 at Wright-Patterson AFB around 1996. They had it in a hanger located away from the museum and it took a bus ride to get to it . They also had the last XB-70 in the same hanger. They were the most beautiful planes I can imagine. We didn't get any info about either but it was great. Your article really filled in a lot of details; thank you so much.

[ItsKing]

The national air and space museum in va has one in the restoration hanger and back in December for the tenth anniversary of the center. they let everyone walk through the hanger and I got to see the X-15 relatively up close. Its so impressive because we were going 6.7 times the speed of sound in 1967 who knows what they are doing now.

[markthibault]

Just finished Scott Crossfield's very interesting book, "Always another dawn" where he talks about the X-15's early development at North American. Great read.

[MichaelRoy-hclz]

I was a young boy when this was going on, l read everything l could get my hands on, built models of it etc. Thank you for this tour it's still one of my favorite chapters in aviation

[derekcoaker]

My Son and I are traveling to Ohio for the Eclipse in three weeks, I think we are going to spend that weekend at this Museum again. I feel like I missed a lot on our first visit there about 6 years ago. Great Channel, Thank You.

[porticojunction]

I have touched both of the remaining X15s. The one in Dayton used to be displayed so you could walk up and lean right into the cockpit, super cool!

[Hyposonic]

My dad brought that one to the museum from California decades ago when the museum was much smaller and in a different area of the base. That trip was an interesting story in its own right.

[Lalo-fvne]

When I was 10 in 1963, our family went on a long vacation to Santa Anna in Orange County. On the trip back home I actually saw one the X-15s being hauled on a flatbed trailer with it's wings detached and standing upright on each of it's sides and that was after I had seen the movie.

[frisk]

The things these great men created and flew (now a very long time ago) is just incredible! Thanks for sharing this!

[larrymead]

Excellent. Never seen the inside of the combustion chamber before.

[randysollars]

When I was a child I remember running around the yards with our arms out playing X-15. We were so excited to hear of a launch. What amazing times.