Hello again and as always, thanks for visiting.
This blog features the NB-52A mother ship with a North American X-15 slung under a pod - in classic Black and White. This modified B-52 is only one of two that participated in the X-15 test program. Hash marks on the side of the upper fuselage mean as follows: horizontal lines mean no drop (they were testing aerodynamics and other systems) with the aircraft still attached, an upward hash meant the X-15 dropped away and the rocket fired the X-15 upward to altitude (these icons have red/orange flame), downward slanted hash marks were a simple descending glide.
Total test flights were, wait for it, 336 (though a fair number were scrubbed), with an altitude record of 354,200' (67.083 miles) and a speed record of Mach 6.7 or 4,520mph. The X-15 still holds the world speed record for fastest crewed aircraft which was set 3 October 1967 with pilot Pete Knight at the controls. The altitude record, also flown by pilot Pete Knight, literally reached the fringes of space. This qualified him as an astronaut according to the United States definition of the boundary of space. However, this altitude did not surpass the Karman line, the internationally accepted boundary of 100 kilometers (62 miles). I hope he got an astronaut patch for that.
Thanks and we'll see you again.
Tally ho!
Steve