This Week in History: The X-15 Hypersonic Plane
At about this time in 1963, a NASA test pilot soars into space. Joseph A. Walker was then flying an experimental spaceplane, the X-15. The trip made him the first to twice pass the Kármán line, the internationally accepted altitude where outer space begins.
Do you know about the X-15 hypersonic plane? Three were built, then piloted by NASA and U.S. Air Force pilots. From 1959 to 1968, these planes would conduct 199 different missions in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
“The North American Aviation X-15 rocket planes,” a NASA website concludes, “designed to explore the problems of atmospheric and space flight at supersonic and hypersonic speeds . . . contributed directly to the success of the Apollo lunar missions.”
The story continues here: https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-joe-walker-x15















