Things You Likely Never Knew About X-15 Rocket Plane

In this episode, we are going to talk about “X-15: the fastest manned rocket plane ever” The North American X-15 was a plane unlike any other. Its shaped more like a bullet than a conventional airplane. The aircraft was billed as the U.S.’ first crewed attempt to ply the outer reaches of Earth’s atmosphere and beyond. Even though most Americans alive today have likely never heard of it, it marked 61 years since the X-15’s first powered test flight in California’s high desert. X-15 is rocket-powered research aircraft built in the 1950s by North American Aviation, Inc., for the U.S military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in order to gather information on flight conditions beyond the atmosphere. The aircraft was built to find out how aircraft structures, materials, and control surfaces would perform at hypersonic speeds and very high altitudes.
First flown in 1959, the X-15 set separate unofficial altitude and speed records for aircraft during the 1960s almost 108 km above the surface of Earth and 6.7 times the speed of sound. Launched from an in-flight B-52 bomber, the X-15 could not achieve the velocity and altitude needed for orbital flight. Nevertheless, in 199 flights over a 9-year period, the aircraft established an extensive database on transonic and supersonic flights and revealed vital information concerning the upper atmosphere. Of the 12 pilots who flew X-15s, 8 became astronauts including Neil Armstrong. The program has been acknowledged as the most successful flight research program in history, and it helped make human spaceflight possible.

All content on Military TV is presented for educational purposes.

Subscribe Now :

[gabrielbennett]

Actually, I knew all of this stuff. My late grandfather, Vic Horton, was a NASA engineer who worked on the X-15 program out at Edwards and knew the men who flew it personally. Before going to NASA in 1958, he worked for Reaction Motors (a division of Thiokol) and was involved in the XLR-99's first test firings and throttling demonstrations out at the old South Base rocket test site. In the 1960s, he often flew as Launch Panel Operator aboard the B-52 mothership for both it and the lifting bodies (he was actually on the launch panel during the infamous May 1967 M2-F2 crash shown on "The Six Million Dollar Man") and also organized the search and recovery efforts after Michael Adams' fatal November 1967 crash in the #3 ship, 66672, (my mom told me that for years afterward he would occasionally take them on outings near the crash site, ostensibly for fun, but he was actually looking for more debris, just in case there was something important that they'd missed the first time around). He was also the one who came up with the idea for the ground-based 8-ball attitude indicator in the control room that was installed to prevent it from happening again. He used to carpool with many of the pilots on a daily basis. Milton (Milt) Thompson (who was his mentor) and William (Bill) Dana, especially. To him, all these great men were basically just "the guys from the office." In fact, he had his desk right next to Bill's in the FRC Pilot's Office for his entire 25 year career (they were both hired by the newly-formed NASA in October 1958). I actually had the honor of interviewing Bill about his X-15 and lifting body flights for a high school history class as a result.

Here's an X-15 fact you may not be aware of: the Honeywell MH-96 Adaptive Flight Control system used exclusively on the ill-fated #3 ship, 66672, was NOT developed for the X-15 originally. It was actually developed for the USAF's X-20 Dyna Soar orbital spaceplane and was adapted to X-15 use after that program was cancelled in late 1963.

[tomstamford]

I'm sure it's been pointed out somewhere in the comments here and don't mean to nit pick, but at 6:44 you refer to the Bell X-1, with photo - captioned as a Bell X-1, however it is an X-1A, which has written on the side of the fuselage "X-1A."

[smooth_sundaes]

Can't watch this and not think about about Neil Armstrong. Not only a hero ahead of his time but (to my mind) of all time and to all people

[vast]

The pilots had the best looking space suits ever.

[alhanlanggal]

imagine ejecting at a speed of mach 4 in 120, 000 ft

[tonk]

Forrest Petersen was one of 2 Navy pilots that flew in the X-15 program, the other being Neil Armstrong. Petersen's son was my first F-14 RIO, and told me some interesting X-15 stories. It was not uncommon for the rocket motor to fail to ignite after being released from the B-52, and so they would glide down and try again. The video mentioned there were 199 X-15 flights. When they got to about 190 flights, it was determined that it was time to start thinking about ending the program. They decided to end the program after 200 flights, a nice even number. Once they got to 199, they tried 7 or 8 times to get 1 more to make 200, but were unable to get the motor to light off so finally decided they were pushing their luck and stopped at 199.

[daskritterhaus]

Neil Armstrong.
a simple 'farm boy' that, well, BORN AT THE EXACT MOMENT to be the ONLY one to pick for Apollo 11 and all that. the only one. what a brilliant aviator.

[leatrinidad]

I know everything about the X-15 since it came out. This is an old school info.

[metubyaj]

Building the jets fighters as fast as the light to compete with the enemy.

[khanhvantran]

Tên lữa đánh chận được. Máy bay tên lữa chính xác mục tiêu hơn tên lửa củng đánh chận được nhưng khó hơn do có người lái trác tránh tên lữa.

[dieuvi]

Những điều này Viẹt Nam sắp làm được, thậm chí sẽ làm tốt hơn

[donjames]

I enjoyed the reported exploits of the X-15 during the 60s, until Life's challenges intervened fostering life-skills development .. .

[daskritterhaus]

a necessary read is Tom Wolfe's 'Right Stuff'

[mollybell]

Who the heck has not heard of the x15, ?

[daskritterhaus]

2:49 'balls 8'. ya well it took BALLS alright. but look at the legacy and progress.

[milosmilictrob]

It didnt make Human space flight possible, it made US manned space flights possible. Since Soviets had 1st man in space it really didnt help them.

[robertbolding]

well i guess all airplanes are shaped like bullets

[retluoc]

Yeah the X-15, that was cheating. But so was the Bell X-1. I'm still not sure which air breathing engine aircraft first broke the sound barrier, but I think it was the F-100. Not positive though, I'll look it up.

[somchaisom]

จั่วหัวไทยแต่บรรยายอังกฤษ ตั้งใจหรือเปล่า

[mirandela]

A HUGE mistake, right from the start - TITLE ! - This is NOT a plane, is just a manned rocked ! One of the main conditions to define something like an "airplane" - is to be able to take-off ALONE ! Obvious, this is NOT the case, is the classical click-bait trap, and for sure cannot enter the category "fastest rocket plane" - you want an example for the truly meaning of "rocket plane" - look no further than the end of the ww2, with the german rocket plane. That thing, 75 years ago, was able to take off ALONE, not like this murican experimental manned ROCKET.