Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The X-15's highest speed, 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h; 2,021 m/s), [1] was achieved on 3 October 1967, [2] when William J. Knight flew at Mach 6.7 at an altitude of 102,100 feet (31,120 m), or 19.34 miles. This set the official world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a crewed, powered aircraft, which remains unbroken. [3] [4]
It would ultimately reach a top speed of 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h), or Mach 6.72. Describes how the X-15 Aircraft was designed and built by North American Aviation. Engineered to...
During its research program, the aircraft set unofficial world speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7 on Oct. 3, 1967, with Air Force pilot Pete Knight at the controls) and 354,200 feet (on Aug. 22, 1963, with NASA pilot Joseph Walker in the cockpit).
Then, just 20 years later, William “Pete” Knight flew the X-15 hypersonic airplane to a Mach number of 6.7, the fastest speed attained in the X-15. By virtue of this flight, Knight still holds today the world’s speed record in a winged, powered aircraft.
Still the fastest airplane ever flown, the North American X-15 earned its title 40 years ago, when on October 3, 1967 Air Force Major William “Pete” Knight flew the rocket-powered aircraft to...
Mach 6.7: The X-15 Remains the Fastest Airplane to Ever Fly. It's flight record has stood for over half a century. by Caleb Larson L. Here's What You Need to Know: The X-15’s Mach 6.7 flight ...
Even with the fatal crash of the third X-15, the overall success of the program helped pave the way for NASA to continue to the Moon. A concise, yet detailed, introduction to the X-15 that is definitive and beautifully illustrated.
The X-15 resembles not so much a plane as an oversized dart – a needle-nosed torpedo with stubby wings, built around a rocket engine that could propel it to speeds in excess of 4,500mph...
The X-15's pioneering flights set records that still have not been broken four decades later, including a top speed of Mach 6.7 (4,520 mph) and a peak altitude of 354,200 feet (67 miles). While doing this it gathered engineering and scientific data needed to develop new families of aircraft and spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle.
The X-15 was air launched from a B-52 aircraft at 45,000 feet and at a speed of about 500 mph. After dropping from the B-52, the rocket engine provided thrust for the first 80 to 120 seconds of flight.