North American X-15 Research Rocketplane PDF eBook + Flight Manual

Price: $19.95

  • 5 magazines, 6 documents, & photos
  • PDF contains 1,556 pages
  • Print a personal copy
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  • International orders welcome!
  • Download files upon payment

May 1978

  • X-15, North American’s Hypersonic Bullet
  • Convair’s Tradewind

May 1993

  • Flying the X-15 at Mach 6
  • Mass Producing the P-51 Mustang
  • Vultee’s Attack Planes

October 2002

  • Joe Engle, Fighter Pilot and X-15 Astronaut
  • B-25s in North Africa
  • Navy Jet Seaplanes

March 2004

  • X-15 Accidents
  • World War II Bombing
  • Operating Iraqi Freedom
  • Passenger Helicopters

November 2005

  • X-15 Pilots in Space
  • Popeye Intercept
  • 80 Years of Schneider Cup Races

Manuals & Photos

  • X-15 Flight Manual 1962
  • X-15 30th Anniversary 1989
  • X-15 Advanced Research Airplane 1955
  • X-15 Frontiers Of Flight, NASA
  • X-15 Hypersonics Before the Shuttle 2000
  • X-15 Research Results 1965
  • Over 200 X-15 photos

Bonus

  • NASA X-15: To The Edge of Space, poster PDF
  • Specifications
  • On Display
  • Cutaway
  • Videos

General Characteristics

x15-diagram

  • Crew: one
  • Length: 50 ft 9 in (15.45 m)
  • Wingspan: 22 ft 4 in (6.8 m)
  • Height: 13 ft 6 in (4.12 m)
  • Wing area: 200 ft2 (18.6 m2)
  • Empty weight: 14,600 lb (6,620 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 34,000 lb (15,420 kg)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 34,000 lb (15,420 kg)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Thiokol XLR99-RM-2 liquid-fuel rocket engine, 70,400 lbf at 30 km (313 kN)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 4,520 mph (7,274 km/h)
  • Range: 280 mi (450 km)
  • Service ceiling: 67 mi (108 km, 354,330 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 60,000 ft/min (18,288 m/min)
  • Wing loading: 170 lb/ft2 (829 kg/m2)
  • Thrust/weight: 2.07

X-15 Aircraft

  • X-15A-1 (AF Ser. No. 56-6670) is on display in the National Air and Space Museum “Milestones of Flight” gallery, Washington, D.C.
  • X-15A-2 (AF Ser. No. 56-6671) is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio. It was retired to the Museum in October 1969. The aircraft is displayed in the Museum’s Research & Development Hangar alongside other “X-planes”, including the Bell X-1B and Douglas X-3 Stiletto.

Mockups

  • Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, California, USA (painted with AF Ser. No. 56-6672)
  • Pima Air & Space Museum, adjacent to Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona (painted with AF Ser. No. 56-6671)
  • Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon (painted with AF Ser. No. 56-6672). A full-scale wooden mockup of the X-15, it is displayed along with one of the rocket motors.

B-52 Stratofortress Mother Ships

  • NB-52A (AF Ser. No. 52-003) is displayed at the Pima Air & Space Museum adjacent to Davis–Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. It launched the X-15-1 30 times, the X-15-2, 11 times, and the X-15-3 31 times (as well as the M2-F2 four times, the HL-10 11 times and the X-24A twice).
  • NB-52B (AF Ser. No. 52-008) is displayed at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California. It launched the majority of X-15 flights.