Hypersonic: The Story of the North American X-15

Nineteen years before Space Shuttle, the small, black, rocket-powered, bullet-shaped X-15 showed it was possible to fly into - and out of - space. At the dawn of the 21st Century there seem to be a great interest in hypersonic flight. For the most part this is related to a new generation of missiles - air-to-air and air-to-surface - that are being proposed as the next logical increment in weapons, although the designers of the forever-in-development replacement for the Space Shuttle also have a vested interest in hypersonic research. This book is a tribute to the program, the airplanes, and the people who designed, maintained and flew the most successful of the X-planes. There had never been anything like the X-15; it had a million-horsepower engine and could fly twice as fast as a rifle bullet. Over the course of ten years and 199 flights, pilots from the Air Force, Navy, and NASA would spend 85 minutes at hypersonic velocities flying to the edge of space.