Hosted on MSN

X-15: The Rocket Plane That Flew to Mach 6.7

While the SR-71 Blackbird gets all the press, the rocket-powered X-15 has its own richly deserved place in the aviation history record books: on October 3, 1967, U.S. Air Force test pilot William ...
Hosted on MSN

X-15 flight 90 accidentally pushed a pilot past the edge of space

The North American X-15 was built to flirt with the edge of space, not to cross it by accident. Yet on a research mission labeled Flight 90, a routine test profile slipped just far enough out of ...
The National Interest

The X-15 was a Starfighter in All But Name

The X-15 was a key bridge between conventional atmospheric flight and spaceflight. The North American X-15 is one of the most groundbreaking aircraft ever created in the history of aviation and space ...
The Aviationist

Going Hypersonic: A Look at the Record-setting X-15

An important part of data collection for the United States space program, the North American X-15 had astonishing performance utilizing the technology of the 1950s and 60s. The North American X-15 was ...
The National Interest

The U.S. Air Force Went to Space on the North American X-15

The X-15 is the only conventional aircraft that has ever been flown above the “Karman Line” separating the Earth’s atmosphere from space. The Neil Armstrong biopic, First Man, starring Ryan Gosling as ...