Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ANHYDROUS-AMMONIA
XLR-99
TANK (FUEL)
ENGINE
LIQUID - OXYGEN
TANK (OXIDIZER)
LIQUID NITROGEN
AUXILIARY
POWER UNITS
ATTITUDE ROCKETS
HYDROGEN
PEROXIDE
3
More intangibly but no less importantly, in the words of
These experiments —28 of them— ranged from as- John Becker, the X-15 project led to “the acquisition of new
tronomy to micrometeorite collection. They included tests of piloted aerospace flight ‘know how’ by many teams in
horizon definition and proposed insulation that bore fruit in government and industry. They had to learn to work to-
the navigation equipment and thermal protection used on the gether, face up to unprecedented problems, develop solu-
Saturn launch vehicles in the Apollo program, which dis- tions, and make this first manned [today, we would say
patched 12 astronauts to the moon and back. Among the 12 piloted] aerospace project work. These teams were an
was Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the moon’s important national asset in the ensuing space programs.”
surface and a former X-15 pilot who also flew many other
research aircraft at the Flight Research Center. As the partial list of accomplishments suggests, the
X-15 brilliantly achieved its basic purpose of supporting
In the area of physiology, researchers learned that the heart piloted hypersonic flight within and outside the Earth’s
rates of X-15 pilots ranged from 145 to 185 beats per minute atmosphere. In addition, it carried out the “explorations to
during flight. This greatly exceeded the normal 70 to 80 separate the real from the imagined problems and to make
beats per minute experienced on test missions for other known the overlooked and the unexpected problems” that
aircraft. The cause of the difference proved to be the stress Hugh Dryden had called for in 1956 when the X-15 was
X-15 pilots encountered during prelaunch in anticipation of still in the design and development phase.
each mission. As it turned out, the higher rates proved
typical for the future physiological behavior of pilot-
astronauts.
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The Aircraft
Except for the number two X-15 when modified The X-15A-2, modified from the number two
as the X-15A-2, the X-15s were roughly 50 ft long, aircraft and delivered to NASA in February 1964,
with a 22-ft wing span. The wedge-shaped vertical included among other new features, a 28-in. fuse-
tail was 13 ft high. Because the lower vertical tail lage extension to carry liquid hydrogen for a super-
extended below the landing skids when they were sonic combustion ramjet that was flown (as a
deployed, a part of the lower vertical tail was jetti- dummy) but never tested. It also had external tanks
soned just before landing and recovered by a para- for liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen. These tanks
chute. The aircraft was powered by a Thiokol (Reac- provided roughly 60 seconds of additional engine
tion Motors Division) XLR-99 throttleable rocket burn and were used on the aircraft’s Mach 6.7
engine powered by anhydrous ammonia and liquid flight. While adding to the speed the X-15 did
oxygen. It provided a maximum thrust of 57,000 lb achieve, the tanks also increased the aircraft’s
and a minimum thrust of 28,000 lb. Launch weight weight to almost 57,000 lb and added significantly
of the aircraft was 31,275 lb, decreasing to 12,295 lb to the drag experienced by the aircraft in flight.
at burnout.
Fuselage
Windshield Sky extension Helium
hatch tank
Extended
main gear
Removable wing tip
H2O2
tanks
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Sources:
Pilots
Milton O. Thompson, At the Edge of Space: The X-15
X-15 pilots in order by dates of first flight # of Flight Program (Washington, D.C., and London:
Flights Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992).
A. Scott Crossfield, North American Aviation 14
Richard P. Hallion, On the Frontier: Flight Research
Joseph A. Walker, NASA 25 at Dryden, 1946-1981 (Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-
4303, 1984).
Robert M. White, United States Air Force (USAF) 16
Wendell H. Stillwell, X-15 Research Results (Wash-
Forrest S. Petersen, United States Navy 05
ington, D.C.: NASA SP-60, 1965).
John B. McKay, NASA 29
John V. Becker, “The X-15 Program in Retrospect,”
Robert A. Rushworth, USAF 34 3rd Eugen Sänger Memorial Lecture, Bonn, Germany,
Dec. 4-5, 1968, copy in the NASA Dryden Historical
Neil A. Armstrong, NASA 07
Reference Collection.
Joe H. Engle, USAF 16