EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT,UNCATEGORIZED,WORLD RECORDS AVIATIONTHE
FASTEST (ROCKET-) PLANE IN THE WORLD X-15OCTOBER 31, 2014LEAVE A
COMMENTThere have been countless aircraft capable of flyingfaster
than the speed of sound. Some have reached twice that, and a few as
high as three times the speed of sound. But there is one rocket
plane to rule them all. An aircraft that was introduced in 1959,
flew so high that it gave its pilots astronautical status. It
reached altitudes higher than 100 kilometers, speeds higher than
mach 6(!) and gathered extremely important data for future aviation
and spacecraft projects. It was a flying rocket. It was theNorth
American X-15.The aircraft that became a space planeThe North
American X-15 was as you can see a legendat the time of its
introduction. There were only three examples built and together
they conducted 199 flights, although only 13 passed the Air Force
criteria for being calledspace flights(altitude of 80 km or
higher). 8 different pilots reached this height and so they
received astronaut status, something that earned the pilots from
the USAF the Air Force astronaut wings. The purpose of building the
X-15 was to retrieve important data that would be used in later
aircraft designs. It holds the speed record of a manned aircraft:
7,274 km/h.The takeoff of the X-15 rocket airplaneX-15 attached to
its mothership B-52.A typical flight worked as follows: It started
with the X-15 being carried to an altitude of about 14 km under the
wing of a B-52 Stratofortress, called the Mothership (you thoguht
this was the idea of Virgin Galactic?). It was then dropped, at
that instant having a speed of about 805 km/h. Next it then started
its rocket engine, built by Reaction Motors, and accelerated
towards theedge of spacewith astonishing speed. To remain stable,
it used a thick wedge tail as this gives great stability at
hypersonic speeds. However the down-side of this was that this
design produced a lot of drag at lower speeds. When landing, the
aircraft lowered its skids and ejected a parachute from the lower
fin.In fact, the blunt end at the rear of the X-15 could produce as
much drag as an entire F-104 Starfighter.Steeringwithout air
resistanceX-15 with one of the pilots, Michael J. Adams.Asthe X-15
was used at so high altitudes that no air, and by that no drag, was
present, it used rocket thrusters to steer. The pilots could choose
between two configurations to steer with: one joystick, or three.
The setup with three joysticks was harder to handle but gave the
pilot more control over the aircraft. For instance one of the
joysticks was for the traditional steering (using drag) and the
other to use the rocket thrusters. When using only one cockpit, the
onboard computer steered using both of these systems
simultaneously. There were also some cool features on board. For
instance there were controls for jettisoning of the ventral tail
fun, heating the windows so there was no ice created on them. There
was also aforwardheadrest for when the aircraft was
decelerating.The engine of the worlds fastest aircraftRear view of
the X-15 showing the Reaction Motors Inc XLR99 engine.The engine
used was a Reaction Motors Inc XLR99, producing 2502 kN of thrust.
To get these high amounts of thrust, it burnt anhydrous ammonia and
liquid oxygen. It also used hydrogen peroxide, which pushed the
propellants into the engine. The engine had an astonishing
capability to burn fuel. In just 80 seconds it could burn as much
as 6.8 tons of propellant.The world records of the X-15It set a
number of records during its operational time between 1959 and
1968. Some of them are listed here: It was the first operational
space plane. It got to a height of more than 100 km. It flew more
thansix times the speed of sound (mach 6.70).Neil Armstrong with
the first X-15.All of these records, the tremendous speed and the
importance of the data collected has made the North American X-15 a
legend. One of the pilots, flying at a speed of 6,420 km/h, was
Neil Armstrong, the first man to put his feet on the moon. As can
be seen, the X-15 was a master of record breaking, and did things
no one thought it would be capable of. Without it, the spaceflight
to the moon in 1962 would most probably have been delayed. This is
the story of the X-15 The flying rocket.Additional Reading: The
fastest manned and air breathing plane in the world SR-71 Are we
going back to the cold war? Read about ithere. Read about the U-2
Dragonlady, one of the most important US reconnaissance aircraft
everhere! Learn about naval ship designations and their
meaningshere.Sources: Thecharterstore.com Aerospaceweb.org
Hq.nasa.gov Air-and-space.com