by Nigel Blackwell | Space
I wrote this back in April. With the passing of a man who was both wildly famous and a model of the men they called “the right stuff,” it seems appropriate to remember some of the many things that propelled him to that one small step. In my last post about...
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 | Cars
Even by modern day standards, the X-15 was a remarkably safe aircraft given the goals it was designed to achieve. Be it skill, experience, or just plain luck, the engineer’s design stood up to everything thrown at it right up until Michael Adams launched on flight...
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
The X-15 was designed to smash existing aerospace records. Jets had reached mach 2, manned rocket planes had reached mach 3, and missiles and rockets (X-7 thru 12) had reached into space. The X-15 was designed to double the mach number and reach 250,000ft (space)...
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...