Fastest Piloted Aircraft - US Air Force Major William J. "Pete" Knight pilots the North American X-15A-2 on a research flight, in an illustration by Jack Fellows.
By late 1962, North American Aviation's three X-15s had done all of this. They were flown at more than Mach 6 and an altitude of about 60 miles, launched from two modified Boeing B-52s and powered by 57,000-pound-thrust rocket engines that burned nearly nine tons of anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen in less than 90 seconds. . Their pilots carried the Harmon and Collier trophies, and their heroism was lauded by America's charismatic young president, John F. Kennedy. He has his own movie, X-15, with narration by Charles Bronson, Mary Tyler Moore, and former B-24 fighter commander Jimmy Stewart.
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But when the second X-15 was launched on the morning of November 9, 1962, for Mach 5-plus stability research, the rocket's Thiokol LR99 engine was producing only 30 percent thrust, prompting NASA Flight Research Center pilot Jack McKay to make an emergency landing. Landing had to be done on the baked soil of Mud Lake, Nevada. As it slid toward Earth, the X-15 still retained some residual propellant. Then the flaps will not deflect. Sinking rapidly, it slammed at over 290 mph. A strong drop-load applied by the horizontal stabilizer and removed the rest.
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Investigators reported: "The left main gear strut fell off; the ventral wing hit the ground and exploded; the left stabilizer dug into the ground and exploded; the nose wheels failed at the hubs; the undercarriage slid for approximately 1,400-ft." At the left wingtip, right main-gear skid, and nose-wheel strut; the airplane turns slowly to the left, and finally turns when the right wingtip digs into the ground.
Mackay is trapped in a cigarette, the larger ship screeches for leaking propellant and releasing gas. As the twin-rotor helicopter Piasecki H-21B blew ammonia fumes from the cockpit, rescuers ignored the risk and freed McKay, who was able to fly again despite suffering a fractured spine. .
Similarly, the second X-15. North American proposed, and the US Air Force agreed, to rebuild it into a faster, more capable aircraft. It returned to Edwards Air Force Base in mid-February 1964 with several changes and a new designation: X-15A-2. It has jetzable external tanks, one for liquid oxygen and another for anhydrous ammonia, increasing the engine burn-time to over 141 seconds, enough to exceed Mach 7. A pylon stub for a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) can replace its ventral fin. , and the fuselage has a plug for a liquid hydrogen tank for fuel. Behind the vertical fin is a helium tank for propellant pressurization. The extended fairing houses the additional hydrogen peroxide for the two auxiliary power units (APUs). The landing gear is strong and tall. The canopy consists of a heat-resistant three-layer elliptical mirror, which replaces two crack-prone trapezoidal layers. The test bay is located behind the cockpit. The outer right wing can be turned for the study of structure and materials. Finally, it has strengthened launch linkages to bear the additional weight of the jet-worthy tank and additional structure.
On June 25, 1964, Lt. Colonel Robert A. Rushworth piloted the X-15A-2 on its first flight. This was followed by four flights—one by McKay and three by Rushworth, each with troubled landing incidents. First, the nose gear extended to Mach 4.3; Then the gear door scooped open at Mach 4.5; And finally the right landing skid extended to Mach 4.3. "Boys," Rushworth said angrily after the previous incident, "I've had enough of this!" All reflected uneven thermal expansion, up-lock and forcing the actuator cable to be replaced. Rushworth then moved on, replaced by a new pilot, 35-year-old USAF Major William J. "Pete" Knight took over.
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Slight in stature, Knight Edwards had a towering presence. He was commissioned in 1953 after enlisting during the Korean War, and won the Allison Jet Trophy race the following year. Earning a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1958, he then attended the prestigious Test Pilot School at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), graduating in April 1959.
Knight was assigned to Edwards' famous test ops, flying the early "Century Series" fighters and other aircraft. In 1960 he followed in for Scott Crosfield during a test flight of the X-15. Then the USAF selected him to pilot the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar orbital boost-glider. After Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara canceled the project on December 10, 1963—an unfortunate decision that Knight has neither forgotten nor forgiven—he returned to the AFFTC for space training.
Knight checked out the first X-15 on September 30, 1965, reaching 76,600 feet at Mach 4.06. He did not pilot the X-15A-2 until the summer of 1966, when he made three flights conducting star tracking experiments, ending at 249,000 feet.
Afterwards, the X-15A-2 team focused on trying to reach and exceed Mach 7. His first task was to test the external tank and release the internal propellant, which Knight did on November 18, 1966. Launching near Mud Lake. , he dropped the tank at 2.27 and 69,700 feet and ran at 98,900 feet at a speed of Mach 6.33 (4,261 mph). "When the tanks went in, it was the loudest noise and thump I've heard in a long time," he reported. "It felt like the whole airplane exploded."
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The second task was to test the flight behavior of the dummy scramjet on the pylon, which Knight launched over Hidden Hills Dry Lake on May 8, 1967, and hit Mach 4.75 at 97,600 feet.
The third is to prepare the X-15A-2 to survive temperatures beyond the original 1,200-degree limit. The NASA MA-25S plans to spray a silicone-based ablative coating, developed by Martin, over the underlying Inconel-X nickel alloy structure and pre-form around the wing tips, tail surface and windshield. Fits contoured ablative strips. The X-15A-2 can then test what could be a simpler way to protect future spacecraft during re-entry.
In May and June 1967, technicians installed the Dull Flamingo-Pink ablator and fitted the strips. After the coating cured, they applied a white sealer for protection, because the MA-25S, when exposed to liquid oxygen, explodes when hit with an 8-pound force! Program leaders remember how, just a decade earlier, Bell, the USAF and NASA—predecessor NACA—had killed or wounded three Airmen, blown up four rocket planes and damaged two motherships, which Lux-chilled leather was damaged by the explosions caused by the gaskets, which were torn off upon impact. And did not want to repeat.
Engineers prevented the remnants of the MA-25S from obscuring the pilot's vision through a Solomonic solution: since X-15s typically flew a left-hand landing pattern, they installed an "eyelid" over the left window of the cockpit canopy. Of. During the hypersonic speed run, stripping the MA-25S would render the right panel opaque, but as Knight approached Edwards, he was able to open his eyelids and take off and land to see clearly out the left window. Gone.
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On June 29, 1967, as the X-15A-2 was receiving its coating, Knight nearly killed his first X-15. He climbed above 104,000 feet at Mach 4.17 and was "really enjoying the flight" when an electrical arc from the onboard experiment struck both APUs, causing the LR99 to eject. Knight radioed a short "shutdown" as the warning light came on, then shut down, and the twin APUs were wound up, knocking out all electrical and hydraulic power. He tried to control mechanical feedback, but found them ineffective. Without instruments, communications or controls, Knight became the passenger of a ballistic missile.
The X-15-1 reached 173,000 feet. Going to the top he looked right to see Mono Lake, "clear and beautiful." Given that soil, Knight thought (as he told me in 1982), "Look, Pete – maybe this is where you'd plant it." For a moment he was considered an ejector in the lower atmosphere. However, when the X-15 went down, it switched on its emergency batteries. The right APU refused to start, but the left did, restoring most of the controls and some instruments, but not the radio or angle-of-attack (AOA) indicators, both of which were critical for re-entry.
Reflexively, Knight pulled the nose until X-15 started to yawn, immediately eased up, then yawned again. It was risky but it worked, and the X-15 was on target at 45,000 feet. He then rolled into a sustained 6G left turn, established an approach to Mud Lake, and made a no-flap landing. Exiting the aircraft unhurt, except for a nasty head bump, Knight received the Distinguished Flying Cross for steady nerves and great skill.
The X-15A-2 was ready by the end of summer, pristine in its new white livery. Previous flights had evaluated MA-25S on panels and surfaces, but never as a complete coating. Knight launched over Hidden Hills on August 21, 1967, and took off at Mach 4.94 at 91,000 feet. Declining through Mach 2.5, he opened the lid, which acted as a small canard, inducing a mild pitch-roll-yaw coupling. He threw and landed the scramjet dummy.
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Engineers found the MA-25S to be in generally "very good condition", but the ventral fin stub suffered severe tip corrosion, missing its significance, although the engineer felt that "shock generated by the ramjet dummy's size Waves "caused it. , Technicians added high temperature probes to the leading edge of the vertical fins, checked the APU and propellers, and modified them
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