The X-15: The Rocket Plane That Flew to the Edge of Space

In October 1967, the X-15A-2 reached Mach 6.7, about 4,520 mph. It is still the speed record for a crewed, powered airplane, and the flight left the plane too damaged to fly again. This video tells the whole X-15 story: why NACA wanted a hypersonic research airplane, how the rocket plane was built (XLR99 engine, Inconel X skin, reaction thrusters, wedge tail), the climb to the edge of space, the Mach 6.7 flight, the loss of Michael Adams, and what the program gave to Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle. Most of the footage is real NASA and U.S. Air Force film from 1959 to 1962. The 1967 flights are shown with NASA photos, and on-screen labels mark film from earlier flights. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Fastest Plane 0:48 Why Build It? 1:33 The Machine 2:52 First Flights 3:52 To the Edge of Space 4:51 Mach 6.7 6:00 The Worst Day 6:42 What It Left Behind FOOTAGE (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) • "Research Project X-15" (1962), NASA (via National Museum of the U.S. Air Force) • "Inside the X-15" (1959), NASA / USAF • "X-15: Pathway to the Skies", NASA / U.S. Air Force • Universal Newsreel, "X-15 Aloft" (June 1959) IMAGES (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) • NASA / NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center: X-15A-2 photos (white coating, dummy ramjet, heat damage after the Mach 6.7 flight), cracked windshield (1961), pilots, Scott Crossfield, Joe Walker, Neil Armstrong, Michael J. Adams • U.S. Air Force: Robert White, XLR99 engine · DoD: X-15-1 at the National Air and Space Museum (1983) • Charts, timeline and title cards are our own graphics. SOURCES • NASA, X-15 history pages and X-15 fact sheet • Dennis R. Jenkins, "X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight," NASA SP-2007-562 • Wikipedia, "North American X-15", "List of X-15 flights", "Reaction Motors XLR99", "Scott Crossfield", "X-15 Flight 3-65-97" (secondary) MUSIC: Komiku, "Ambiant Obscur Technology" and "Point Of No Return" (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons NARRATION: synthetic voice (Kokoro TTS). Script written and fact-checked by Hardware Hindsight. #X15 #aviation #NASA #engineering #spacehistory