[AIRPLANE ENGINE]
[THEME MUSIC]
Here at Edwards Air Force base, September 17, 1959
is a historic date.
Early on this Thursday morning the B-52 carrier
takes the X-15 out for its maiden powered flight.
Hydraulic temperature, Scott.
Minus two and holding since we passed the tower.
Test pilot Scott Crossfield is buckled in and ready for a ride
to 40,000 feet where he'll be cut loose
for the first demonstration of this plane's abilities
and performance.
Flying chase will be Al White, North American's alternate,
Joe Walker, NASA's chief test pilot, and the Air Force
project pilot Major Bob White.
All vital observers today, they will
be at the controls of the X-15 in the near future.
Ground crews climb in a variety of vehicles
and stream out to wait for landing
at the edge of the lake bed.
Many eyes are on the dart shaped plane this morning,
but among the most important observers
are the engineers at NASA.
Using the ears of radio and the eyes of radar,
they'll keep a close watch on the flight.
FM signals transmitted will indicate the condition
of each vital operating system.
Each movement will be carefully plotted, carefully watched.
Edwards, 003.
003 Edwards cleared for takeoff.
Winds, 220 degrees at 12 knots.
Prime responsibility for getting the X-15 to drop altitude
rests on the aircraft commander Captain Charles Buck
and the co-pilot Captain Ellerby.
A tower, 003 rolling now.
As the bomber climbs up the litany of checkout drones on.
Item after item, gauge, switch, and control
are checked and rechecked.
In the dim interior of the 52, Bill Berkowitz, launch monitor,
has a close-up television view of system operations.
The group has been this route before, two tries, two misses.
The first try never left the ground.
The second came agonizingly close,
just three minutes from a drop when a frozen valve canceled
the effort.
Delays are difficult to accept, but each time
the system at fault was improved and a problem eliminated.
Engine is coming on now.
[INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] Real slow to pick up hydraulic
pressure.
Blake, how about it?
It's a little slow, but it's up to speed now.
It did drop off in about five seconds and it did go to 3,600.
[INAUDIBLE] on the tank.
Three minutes to drop.
Roger, jettison.
[INAUDIBLE] jettisoning.
OK, good checks.
Prime's coming on now.
[INAUDIBLE] prime [INAUDIBLE] but I can't see it.
Yeah, you got a [INAUDIBLE] on the bottom one.
Yeah.
They're both looking good.
30 seconds, getting ready to launch, right?
Got a launch light on.
Launch light on [INAUDIBLE].
How about it, Blake, think we're OK?
Harry?
All right by me.
Let's go.
OK, Scott, let's give it a try.
OK, Scott, are you ready?
I'm ready when you are, buddy.
OK, here we go with the countdown.
Three, two, one, release.
Got eight of them going.
Roger.
Heading uphill at 33,000 feet.
Roger.
Just got to cross [INAUDIBLE].
Roger.
Direction looks good, [INAUDIBLE]..
Right on, you look real good.
OK, fine.
Up on 50.
Level.
The course for this flight is a giant rectangle
around the lake, climbing to the North
then making a left turn to a westerly heading,
and leveling off at 52,000 feet.
Take a little speed, I'm going to ease off.
Roger.
Left turn, back.
I'm beginning to get around the final part of the turn.
I dropped [INAUDIBLE].
The record showed Mach 2.1, over twice the speed of sound,
1,385 miles an hour.
Burn out.
Roger.
On the first try man and plane went 1/3 the way
to the goal of six times the speed of sound.
As the X-15 slows to subsonic speeds
the chase planes catch up, and the glide portion of the flight
begins.
Now on a southerly heading, Crossfield
begins his long glide to landing from 46,000 feet.
Time in the air is precious and the checkout
continues all the way down.
Right.
[INAUDIBLE]
Steady side slip.
Very powerful rudder on this little lady.
Drop Central.
OK, buddy, just a second.
8,000.
How about I drop it on the track?
Here comes control now.
You ready?
[INAUDIBLE]
You're fouled up?
No, the parachute-- well, it's open, it's letting him down.
How nice.
245.
There's plenty of crosswind, isn't it?
A little bit, yup.
240.
Go for 40.
Gear is coming down and it looks good.
[INAUDIBLE]
Maiden flight a success.
Today flight research took another significant step
forward here at Rogers Dry Lake.
This lake bed has witnessed many significant events
in the history of aviation.
Born this day was a new tool for flight research.
Using a new machine to probe into the unknown, cause
for caution, and weeks later the second flight
showed that the performance could be repeated and excel.
Digesting the knowledge from these first tries,
the program became more ambitious
and another step up the ladder was
planned, one that would extend the operating area.
Countdown for powered flight begins at midnight.
The previous week has seen many test hurdles,
each one met and overcome.
Each one establishing, with greater authority,
the right of the X-15 to be in this fueling area.
All the control points have been passed this far,
and now the touchy, toxic, volatile propellants
are added one by one.
As tanks are gradually filled, crew members
take long last looks into the vital, then close the doors.
Dawn finds the service carts being pulled away with the two
aircraft again standing ready.
Even the most carefully controlled experiment
has its element of risk, and the sober faces
of every member of the team reflect their concern.
Each research flight has fresh new goals.
Each one is a cautious step forward into unexplored areas.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The intention of this flight is to make a straight climb
to 80,000 feet, hitting Mach 2 at the peak.
The now routine checks of plane and engine pass uneventfully,
and just past 9:00 in the morning
the third voyage of the X-15 begins.
[INAUDIBLE]
[JET ENGINE SOUNDS]
I've got fire, Scott, I'd shut down.
Full shut down.
Shut down.
[INAUDIBLE]
In a split second the plan of exploration
is abruptly changed to one of survival
as the pilot feels out the plane for damage
and heads for Rosamond, an emergency landing area.
Never has the pilot been more vital.
Now it's his responsibility to get the plane on the ground
safely if he can.
OK, Scott, [INAUDIBLE] anytime.
Central coming off now, boys.
Central off?
It's off.
Central is off.
[INAUDIBLE] from the flaps.
[INAUDIBLE]
[TENSE MUSIC PLAYING]
[INAUDIBLE]
[INAUDIBLE] 30 feet, 20, 10, five.
Trouble came in pairs on this day.
The engine failure was complicated
by a structural break, and both were, at this time,
unexplained.
The plane was on the ground, the pilot safe,
but there were new problems.
Investigators found that the rocket engine
had suffered an ignition failure,
leaving a chamber loaded with explosives.
When this mixture finally ignited, the chamber ruptured.
This explosion triggered another series
of events leading to additional damage.
Under normal conditions, the tanks are almost empty,
but jettison in a nose-down emergency glide
leaves more propellants, more weight, in the fuselage.
Because of this increased weight, the nose of the plane
had to be higher than usual during landing.
Although the touchdown was smooth,
the nose-up angle was beyond the design limits
and the break occurred when the nose
wheel slammed to the ground.
A day and a half after the accident
saw the air frame and its original jigs at the factory.
The damage that seemed crippling was quickly repaired
and the broken halves rejoined.
This whole project is one set to gain knowledge
and, even from failures, lessons are learned.
The fuselage was strengthened and landing gear
was redesigned to absorb more shock.
The rocket engines were modified to increase reliability.
Five weeks after the unsuccessful try the plane,
now whole and improved, began its trek back
to Edwards Air Force base.
Weeks have slipped by since the accident,
but the time has been traded for knowledge.
More is known now.
Certain hazards have been ruled out.
The machine is better, more able.
This is the number one plane of the series, modified, improved,
and set to show its capabilities.
It hangs frosted, smoking, ready.
[JET ENGINE FIRING]
Looking real good from back here.
And they look [INAUDIBLE].
(SINGING) Back in the saddle again.
Pouring on the rocket power, the X-15
streaks to a new high of Mach 2.5, 1,660 miles an hour
at 67,000 feet.
January saw the number one airplane make
its final qualifying flight.
Delivery to the airports and NASA
started a new crew on acceptance check and pre-flight readying.
Joe Walker, chief research pilot of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, was the first to show that the X-15
is not a one man airplane.
At this time, two X-15s were flight ready.
Number one was involved in the Air Force NASA program
to take the airplane with its present engines
and push it to the limit of its abilities,
and Joe Walker's first flight denotes the start
of this research phase.
The number two plane was still being
flown by North American for investigation of stability,
control, flying qualities.
[INAUDIBLE]
[JET ENGINE FIRING]
OK, that's nice, Joe, turn it a little to the right now.
I would say that's OK.
OK, we've got all eight going now.
Roger.
Everything looks good.
OK.
I'll need [INAUDIBLE] depending on how far out I get now.
The drop was standard, the flight routine,
the landing uneventful.
Two weeks later another new face appeared.
Major Bob White climbed the ladder to the cockpit
to try his hand at rocketplane flying.
An hour and a half later, the X-15 pilots club
had another new member.
The Air Force's project pilot had made his initial run
and now was ready to start some serious research flying.
The spring of the year saw a flurry of activity
with two X-15s flying and North American racking up nine drops
with the number two airplane.
The Air Force and NASA alternated pilots
on a separate series of nine research expeditions, flights
that kept inching up on the world's speed and altitude
records.
Both company and governmental pilots
kept investigating the flight abilities
of the planes in different quarters,
feeling out the new machines, steadily
pushing the operating area out farther, gaining confidence.
All flying during this period was
done with the XLR-11, the small engine package.
Its thrust of 16,000 pounds was adequate
for early investigations.
But everyone was waiting for the big engine, the XLR-99, a brute
that would blast out nearly 60,000 pounds of thrust
to drive the plane to peak speeds and altitudes.
This engine is installed in the third and last plane
of the series which has always been slated to be the test
bed for this new power plant.
And Crossfield uses his time in between flights
to ring off the installation.
Preliminaries are out of the way,
and this run will be one of the final before flight.
[JET ENGINE FIRING]
This long awaited engine can be throttled,
having an idle output of 30,000 pounds
but able to be regulated between idle and 60,000
pounds of thrust.
Today's runs are the climax of a long series of tests
proving the installation.
After this start, they're ready for flight.
[JET ENGINE FIRING]
[INAUDIBLE] malfunction.
Saddle off.
Resess.
[EXPLOSION]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
In a split second, years of planning, months of tests,
and grinding work went up in smoke.
There was only one real observer, one eyewitness,
the pilot, Scott Crossfield.
Scott, what was your immediate reaction?
Well, it was the biggest bang that I had ever heard.
Fortunately for me and the airplane,
the explosion blew the forward section
in the tanks and the cockpit out of the blaze,
or out of the major part of the blaze.
And the firemen were right on their toes
and they moved in to blanket the tanks and the fire area
with foam.
The first reaction we had was that the engine had blown up.
But like many first impressions, this was wrong.
As soon as the pipes cooled down,
a disenchanted group of engineers moved in.
And as you might imagine, things were pretty well
scattered about.
We also took a close look at the film that you've just seen,
and here are a couple of frames that gave us our first clue.
Just before the blow up, a cloud of vapor
appeared ahead of the engine, so the search
was concentrated on this area.
Following up this lead we found that the hydrogen peroxide tank
had been rammed, smashed open.
But with what?
Lining up with the tank is a center structure of the ammonia
tank and its shape match the impacted area of the hydrogen
peroxide sphere.
But how could this part fail?
Likely through overpressure.
Now, a check of the instrumentation
showed tank pressures far over normal.
Again the question, why?
The pressure regulator was recovered and checked.
It was determined that freezing caused
by the very low temperature pressurizing gas
had caused the regulator to stick full open.
But there's a safety, a valve to relieve over pressure.
This valve and the entire release system
was also checked.
Here it was determined that a flow sensitive relief
valve combined with the vapor disposal equipment
had created enough back pressure to fail the tank.
So, a frozen regulator, a faulty relief valve,
and a high back pressure relief system had gotten together
and we had wrecked an airplane.
The entire pressurizing and release systems
were analyzed, redesigned, tested, and retested.
We ran the combination time after time,
deliberately creating the most severe failures possible.
Weeks passed before we and everyone else
were convinced that the problem was licked.
As a measure of how the confidence was restored,
here is what happened on the 4th of August.
On this historic date, Joe Walker let out a yip of joy.
Yippee!
He had just pushed the modified small engine
airplane to a new speed record, then
made his report to the public.
Joe, how does it feel to be the fastest living human?
I don't know if I feel much different than I did yesterday
except that the waiting for the flight is over finally.
60 at 165.
[INAUDIBLE] Joe.
Roger.
[INAUDIBLE] look good?
[INAUDIBLE]
Go, go.
Burnout plus 3 plus.
You made it.
At what point did you reach your maximum speed?
If you noticed the vapor trail from the engine--
if the engine did cut out, that was the point at which
I reached the maximum speed.
And what was your altitude then?
Around 66,000.
How long were you going that 2,150 miles?
Just one instant.
Then on the 12th of August, just eight days later,
Major Bob White was up before the cameras after his 136,500
foot record breaking altitude flight.
The flight today offered, I would say,
no problems and nothing that could
be considered a limitation as far as man's ability
to fly an aircraft.
Starting the pull up.
Roger.
Right on the track.
Your angle looks good, Bob.
It's sure going up.
That's nice.
Once I pitched up and reached the highest climb angle,
I was very definitely impressed that I was going, well almost,
straight up.
Of course, it wasn't straight up,
but it appears to be that way from the cockpit.
Got you coming up on 10 now.
OK.
Angle's very good.
Going through 11 now.
Burnout.
Out now at, coming on 12 now.
Got 12.6, and 13.
Very sensitive.
That's still good.
It's fantastic up here.
What you see at this altitude impressed me
as being the most dramatic point of flying at over 130,000 feet.
The very dark blue sky and the lighter band
that was immediately surrounding the earth, and then of course
the many, many miles off in the distance
that you're able to see.
Looking to the future, I would say that we hope very much,
and I would particularly like to continue on
in work that would take us to higher
altitudes with manned aircraft.
Now the full potential of the airplane with the small engines
had been fully investigated.
While the number two airplane was
being fitted with the big engine,
number one began a series of training flights.
The full crew was now given a chance
to try its hand at piloting the research plane.
Commander Peterson, the Navy's representative,
was the fourth man to ride the X-15.
He made two flights in early fall.
Then Jack McKay, National Research pilot,
took his first ride at the end of October.
Captain Rushworth, the Air Force backup pilot,
was next to show his skill at rocketplane flying.
NASA pilot, Neil Armstrong's, last two flights
closed the year.
Training flights filled the gap while the number two
was being given a complete check out with the large engine.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Since that ill fated day in June when the explosion ripped
the number three ship in half, maximum effort
has been exerted toward getting another engine
and installing it in ship two.
Months of work, weeks of painstaking trials,
around the clock days of final pre-flight
were at last put to the test on the morning of November
the 15th.
This is the X-15 in its final stage of development.
This run, if successful, will mark
the beginning of a whole new era of flight research.
[INAUDIBLE]
It's OK down here, Scott.
Let's give it a go.
Roger.
[INAUDIBLE]
Got it.
Launch.
[JET ENGINE FIRING]
Turn around to the right, Scotty.
The launched tight pressure is going up to 60.
And I'm going uphill.
I'm reading 320.
Launch length is holding at about 55.
About one two [INAUDIBLE] open.
How's it look, Al?
Looks real good, Scotty, you made about a 10 degree turn
to the right when you came off.
With the new engine loafing at idle,
the plane could go to four times the speed of sound,
so the speed brakes are open to stay close to Mach 2.
That's good, Scott.
A little right of course, you're OK.
Fire when ready, Ralph.
[INAUDIBLE]
Tell us, in your own words, how the flight went
and what you thought of it.
Very well, and the engine and its power is impressive.
What was your maximum altitude and speed?
Did you have a chance to check that yourself?
Yeah.
I got about 80,000 feet and a Mach number approaching three.
Scott, your radio talk sounded a bit hesitant this morning
before takeoff.
What was that about?
Oh, no.
I think you misinterpreted that.
Of course, we've been doing the best
we can to get this flight off for five years,
there's any hesitancy there.
Scott, having observed the minimum thrust performance
of the engine, do you think that the airplane now
will be able to live up to its design promises of altitudes
and speed?
[INAUDIBLE] How do you feel?
[INAUDIBLE]
Really, without question, I got a little faster today
than we'd planned and we had on our previous flights.
And my flight's gotten faster than we planned
because, for once in history, we overestimated
the drag on the airplane.
I think it will exceed its original expectations.
Just seven days later the second flight was launched.
And on the 6th of December, the third.
Both showed the engine to have all the abilities claimed
of it.
These two eminently successful flights close the year.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
But the story of the X-15 stands not in the past
but in the future, when every flight is
a record breaker, when every a trip away from the B-52
is an unparalleled research mission.
Human hands will be learning a new skill,
to thrust deep into unexplored areas,
capture vital information, then settle to a safe return
from that twilight land standing between Earth and space.
[MUSIC PLAYING]