by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
In my last post about the X-15 we looked at the sad end of Major Michael Adams. This time we are going to look at one of the happier stories from the X-15, Neil Armstrong. Before he signed onto the Apollo program, Neil Armstrong was both a Naval aviator (serving in...
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
The facts, fiction, and body of knowledge the X-15 generated is enormous. School kids should be taught about it as one of the great things the US should be proud of. In fact, I do bring it up with them, but (contrary to what you may have heard) I do have some sympathy...
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, but the X-3 has looks that surely only its designer could love. It wasn’t just hit by the ugly stick, it was the ugly stick. But ugly isn’t only skin deep, the X-3 had another ugly secret waiting to be found....
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
From the heady days of 1947 through to the present day you could be forgiven for thinking the Air Force/NACA X-1 was the lone aircraft probing the sound barrier, but it wasn’t. The Navy had contracted the Douglas Aircraft Corporation to build an aircraft with a...
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
The X-1 program wasn’t just about reaching Mach 1. Supersonic was only one of numerous areas of flight and flying that the craft explored. The X-1’s speed was achieved by the thrust of a Reaction Motors XLR11 rocket (more of which later), and the duration...