The X-15 Rocket Plane

Flying the First Wings into Space

presented by

Michelle Evans

President of

Mach 25 Media

Lake Forest, CA

 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Huntington Beach, CA

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights while Americans feared losing the race into space.  The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the rocket airplane that met this challenge and opened the way to human space flight.  Ms. Evans’ presentation will focus on this remarkable research aircraft that held the world’s altitude record for 41 years, and still has no equal to match or better its speed of Mach 6.7 or 4,520 mph.

Behind the X-15 story are the 12 men who guided it to space and all the people who kept the rocket airplane flying for nearly a decade, from the mechanics to those in the rocket engine shop.  This presentation is the story that has never been told before of the vehicle that was the true precursor to the Space Shuttle by being the first piloted and winged vehicle to exit Earth’s atmosphere and be guided through a controlled reentry to a safe landing on hard-packed dry desert lakebeds.  In her research, Ms. Evans interviewed nearly 70 people, including 9 of the 12 pilots, such as Neil Armstrong, Scott Crossfield, and Robert White, with family representatives for the remaining pilots.  Others she spoke with include managers, flight planners, and the people in the trenches who made the X-15 ready to fly its next research mission at high altitude and high Mach.  Out of that has come the definitive book on the X-15, and the reason for our AIAA presentation.

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