Dropped in mid-air from beneath the wings of a B-52 mothership, the X-15 A-2 ignited its powerful rocket engine and streaked into the upper-atmosphere. Previous burns only lasted 90-seconds, but on ...

The North American X-15 did more than set records; it quietly redrew the map of what a piloted aircraft could survive at the edge of space. By pushing hypersonic flight to extremes that still stand ...