page_title: List of X-15 flights
section_title: Pilots
hierarchical_section_title: List of X-15 flights / Pilots
caption_attribution_description: English: The X-15 flight crew, left to right: Air Force Captain Joseph H. Engle, Air Force Major Robert A. Rushworth, NASA pilot John B. "Jack" McKay, Air Force Major William J. "Pete" Knight, NASA pilot Milton O. Thompson, and NASA pilot Bill Dana. First flown in 1959 from the NASA High Speed Flight Station (later renamed the Dryden Flight Research Center), the rocket-powered X-15 was developed to provide data on aerodynamics, structures, flight controls and the physiological aspects of high speed, high altitude flight. Three were built by North American Aviation for NASA and the U.S. Air Force. They made a total of 199 flights during a highly successful research program lasting almost ten years. The X-15's main rocket engine provided thrust for the first 80 to 120 seconds of a 10 to 11 minute flight; the aircraft then glided to a 200 mph landing. The X-15 reached altitudes of 354,200 feet (67.08 miles) and a speed of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7).
context_page_description: The flights of the North American X-15, an experimental American spaceplane built by North American Aviation and operated by the United States Air Force and NASA, were conducted from 1959-1968. Twelve pilots flew three X-15 planes, flying record high-altitude flights, high-speed flights, and sub-orbital spaceflights. Collectively, pilots and craft performed a total of 199 free flights after being carried aloft and then air launched from one of two modified B-52 mother ships. The pilots and craft also performed twelve scheduled captive carry test flights and 125 aborted flights in which the X-15 did not uncouple from its B-52 mother ship, for a grand total of 336 flights. The X-15 program's flights generated data and flight experience which supported future development of aircraft, spacecraft, and human spaceflight.
  Five principal aircraft were used during the X-15 program: three X-15 planes and two modified "nonstandard" NB-52 bomber carriers:
  X-15-1 – 56-6670,
  X-15-2 – 56-6671,
  X-15-3 – 56-6672,
  NB-52A – 52-003 nicknamed The High and Mighty One,
  NB-52B – 52-008 nicknamed The Challenger, later Balls 8.
context_section_description: Twelve pilots flew the X-15 over the course of its career.  Scott Crossfield and William Dana flew the X-15 on its first and last free flights, respectively.  Joseph Walker set the program's top two altitude records on its 90th and 91st free flights (347,800 and 354,200 feet, respectively), becoming the only pilot to fly past the Kármán line, the 100 kilometer, internationally recognized boundary of outer space, during the program.  William Knight set the program's Mach (6.70) and speed (4,520 mph) records on its 188th free flight.  Neil Armstrong was the first pilot to fly the program's third plane, the X-15-3.  Following his participation in the program, Joe Engle commanded a future spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, on two missions. Robert Rushworth flew 34 free flights, the most in the program.  Forrest Petersen flew five, the fewest.  Robert White was the first person to fly the X-15 above 100,000 feet.  Milton Thompson piloted a series of typical flights during the middle of the program.  John McKay was injured in (and recovered from, returning to active flight status) a landing accident which damaged the X-15-2, leading to its refurbishment as the modified X-15A-2.  Michael Adams was killed in the program's 191st free flight.  Five pilots were Air Force personnel, five were NASA personnel, one (Crossfield) was employed by manufacturer North American, and one (Petersen) was a Navy pilot.
  Over thirteen flights, eight pilots flew above 264,000 feet or 50 miles, thereby qualifying as astronauts according to the United States definition of the space border.  All five Air Force pilots flew above 50 miles and were awarded military astronaut wings contemporaneously with their achievements, including Adams, who received the distinction posthumously following the flight 191 disaster.  However the other three were NASA employees, and did not receive a comparable decoration at the time.  In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration conferred its first-ever commercial astronaut wings on Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, pilots of the commercial SpaceShipOne, another spaceplane with a flight profile comparable to the X-15's.  Following this in 2005, NASA retroactively awarded its civilian astronaut wings to Dana (then living), and to McKay and Walker (posthumously).  Eleven flights above 50 miles were made in the X-15-3, and two were made in the X-15-1.
  Every X-15 pilot also flew as a program chase pilot at least once, supporting missions in which they were not flying as lead pilots.  Other chase pilots included future astronauts Michael Collins, Fred Haise and Jim McDivitt.
  The two NB-52 mother ships were most frequently piloted by Fitz Fulton.  On one occasion Chuck Yeager, former pilot of the X-15's predecessor X-plane the X-1, the first crewed craft to break the sound barrier, assisted as NB-52 co-pilot for an aborted flight.
caption: X-15 pilots as of December 1965, left to right: Joe Engle, Bob Rushworth, John McKay, Pete Knight, Milt Thompson, and Bill Dana.
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