47 years ago Pete Knight flew an X-15 to a speed of 6.7 mach at an altitude of 280,000 feet. The airplane was so hot from the friction that parts began to glow and some burned. It must have been quite a ride. See the rest here http://alert5.net/2014/10/02/47-years-ago-today-the-fastest-manned-aircraft-flight-ever/
The record setting X-15A-2, aircraft number 56-6671, with its unusual white heat resistant ablative coating and giant anhydrous ammonia tanks under its fuselage
The two tanks were actually aero fairings for the pilot’s huge ba!!s.
I got to meet Joe Engle. Here's a man who's flown something like 145 different planes and he said the X-15 was his favorite. This is the only man to every hand fly n Orbiter from reentry to touchdown by hand so that st as statement carries some weight.
Wasn't this done to find out what the space shuttle would have to endure?
yamaha wrote: Wasn't this done to find out what the space shuttle would have to endure?
If I had to guess I'd say it was done because someone thought it was a berkeleying awesome thing to do. They were correct.
Lots of drama in that article overshadowing some errors or misunderstandings. But yes, the X-15 was an amazing project. It also pioneered flight simulation as a training tool so the pilots could run through the missions ahead of time. Someday I need to go see one of the two remaining planes.
The ablative coating was actually pink. They painted it white 
One is at the Wright Patterson Museum in Dayton about 2.5 hours north of me. Thanks for reminding me, I need to go back soon.
That's the X-15A-2, the world record plane itself. #1 is in the Smithsonian, and #3 was destroyed in a crash. There are some mockups around as well.
The X-15 wasn't designed to be a shuttle demonstrator, per say, but the data from its 199 flights proved invaluable to North American Rockwell in designing the Orbiter.
The Pima Air and Space Museum here in Tucson has a ful scale mock up of an X-15, its pretty cool. But they do have the actual B-52 that it was launched from.
KyAllroad wrote: One is at the Wright Patterson Museum in Dayton about 2.5 hours north of me. Thanks for reminding me, I need to go back soon.
Its in the R&D hangar on the base proper, so unless you have or know somebody with a military/DOD ID, you've gotta get there at the crack of dawn to get a spot on one of the buses.
Good to know. I think I'll be going with my son saturday and I'll bring my ID with me. 
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