On this day in aviation history: In 1965 the X-15 flies again! Forty-nine years ago today, Major Robert A. Rushworth made the first flight of the modified X-15A-2 rocketplane. After a landing accident which caused significant damage to the second X-15, it was rebuilt by North American Aviation to continue experiments with high speed flight. A 28-inch fuselage extension was installed forward of the wings to create room for a liquid hydrogen fuel tank to be used for an experimental scramjet engine that would later be mounted on the ventral fin. The modified aircraft was also able to carry two external fuel tanks. It was hoped that additional propellant would allow the X-15A-2 to reach much higher speeds. The first flight with the new configuration was an “envelope expansion” flight, intended to test the handling characteristics of the X-15A-2, and to jettison the empty external tanks to evaluate the separation and trajectory as they fell away from the rocketplane in supersonic flight. The X-15A-2 was dropped from the Boeing NB-52A Stratofortress mothership over Cuddeback Lake, northeast of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of southern California. It was the only time during the 199-flight X-15 program that the lake was used as a launch point. After the X-15 was released, Rushworth ignited the Reaction Motors XLR99-RM-1 rocket engine and it ran for just over a minute before its fuel supply was exhausted. Rated at 57,000 pounds of thrust, the engine pushed the aircraft to 70,600 feet and Mach 2.31 (1,514 MPH). The test flight went well; the external tanks jettisoned cleanly and fell away, but the recovery parachute for the liquid oxygen tank did not deploy, and the tank was damaged beyond repair. Rushworth touched down on Rogers Dry Lake after a short (but fast) flight of 5 minutes, 1.6 seconds.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 17:06:54 +0000
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