Decades before the rumored SR-72 “Darkstar,” America had already conquered hypersonic flight with the X-15 rocket plane. -In ...

The North American X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft bridged the gap between manned flight within the atmosphere and manned flight beyond the atmosphere into space. After completing its initial ...

The pilot of the X-15 had to manually jettison the lower fin to land properly because it was longer than the rear skids of ...

In 1967, William “Pete” Knight made history at the stick of his North American X-15A-2 rocket-powered aircraft when he reached a speed of Mach 6.7, or around 5,140 miles per hour, at an ...

The X-15 is the only aircraft that has ever been flown above the Karman Line; two X-15 flights crossed the 100-kilometer threshold of space, Flight 90 and Flight 91.

While the Blackbird SR-71 was the fastest manned airplane ever made, the fastest manned aircraft is the North American X-15, a rocket plane that flew for. Skip to content Gizmodo. Search .

The first such test was on June 8, 1960, and it did two things: it nearly killed North American test pilot Scott Crossfield, and it proved that the X-15’s cockpit was one of the safest places to ...

Bold, black and blazing fast: The North American X-15 was a plane unlike any other. And although it first flew over 60 years ago, it is still the quickest manned aircraft ever to fly.

North American X-15 Provenance Jeffrey Robinson, Gift, 2021, NASM.2022.0007. ... Raun Robinson (died 1975) was an engineer with North American Aviation who worked on numerous aircraft, including the ...

Flights 90 and 91. Joe Walker, who was one of just twelve pilots to operate the X-15, was the only one to pilot the aircraft above the Karman Line.The flight, known as Flight 90, occurred on July ...