X-15 Rocket Plane 3d model

cgstudio

The North American X-15 rocket-powered aircraft is a part of the X-series of experimental aircraft, initiated with the X-1, designed for the USAF, NASA, and USN. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the early 1960s, reaching outer space and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design. It currently holds the world record for fastest speed ever reached by an aircraft. During the X-15 program, thirteen flights met the USAF spaceflight criteria by exceeding fifty miles of altitude, qualifying eight pilots for astronaut status; some pilots also qualified for NASA astronaut wings. Two flights, flown by the same pilot, qualified as space flights, per the international FAI definition of a spaceflight, exceeding one hundred kilometers of altitude. Textures and color maps are included for this model. The X-15 was built in three aircraft, flying 199 test flights, with the last flight on October 24, 1968. Twelve test pilots flew the X-15, including Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, and Joe Engle, a space shuttle commander. In July and August 1963, pilot Joe Walker crossed the one hundred kilometer altitude mark twice, joining NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts as the only men to have entered outer space. US Air Force Test Pilot Major Michael J. Adams was killed on November 15, 1967, in X-15 Flight 191 when his craft (X-15-3) entered a hypersonic spin while descending, oscillating violently as aerodynamic forces increased after re-entry. The airframe broke apart at sixty thousand feet altitude, scattering the wreckage for fifty square miles. On June 8, 2004, a monument was erected at the cockpit's location near Randsburg, California. Major Adams was posthumously awarded astronaut wings for his final flight in craft X-15-3, reaching two hundred and sixty-six thousand feet of altitude. In 1991, his name was added to the Astronaut Memorial monument, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Bomber NB-52A (s/n 52-003), a permanent test variant, carried an X-15 with mission markings; horizontal X-15 craft silhouettes denote glide flights, diagonal silhouettes denote powered flights.