To The Edge Of Space And Beyond! X-15 CoolPix 2Fer

(click pic for hi-res)  North American X-15 on the B-52 wing about 50 years ago

 With all this Felix Baumgartner edge-of-space talk, I found myself getting all misty-eyed thinking about the North American X-15 and the amazing things that little black beast accomplished in the late 50's and early 60's. I figure this is a good time to offer up a couple hi-res CoolPix images for you to gaze at.

 To put it all in perspective, Felix plans to jump from 120,000 feet, but the X-15's highest flight was in 1963 when Joe Walker reached 354,199 feet. However, almost all of the fastest X-15 flights occurred in and around that 120,000 foot altitude. These fastest flights ranged from 3,900 mph all the way up to 4,519 mph! And without question, the X-15 provided so much important data for understanding both the space environment, and the transition from space back into aerodynamic flight.

 I hope you enjoy these two nostalgic pix of one of the most fascinating flying machines ever designed and built, but I also wanna encourage you that I can feel an 'X-15 week' here at AirPigz coming on before long... and wow, that's gonna be cool : )

[In the X-15 days and still today, the USAF and NASA award astronaut wings for flight at 50 miles in altitude (264,000 feet) - thus consided a 'spaceflight', while the FAI considers spaceflight at 100 kilometers (328,000 feet) in altitude]

 (click pic for hi-res) One of the three X-15's built landing on the California lakebed in 1961