On Aug. 22, 1963, U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Walker flew an X-15 space plane higher than any pilot had ever flown before. Walker reached an altitude of over 67 miles (108 kilometers). That's about 5 ...

On October 3, 1967, the X-15A-2 set a world airspeed record of Mach 6.72. The aircraft is now at the National Museum USAF.

On July 17, 1962, the American test pilot Bob White broke the world record for the highest altitude flight. He took off from Edwards Air Force Base in a rocket-powered X-15 aircraft and made it to an ...

On October 3, 1967, the “fastest man alive,” U.S. Air Force Major William J. “Pete” Knight, set world records for speed and altitude in a piloted fixed-wing aircraft that still stands nearly six ...

While the SR-71 Blackbird gets all the press, the rocket-powered X-15 has its own richly deserved place in the aviation history record books: on October 3, 1967, U.S. Air Force test pilot William ...

Summary and Key Points: Before NASA led U.S. space exploration, there was debate over whether the U.S. Air Force or the newly formed NASA should shuttle astronauts to space and in what type of craft. ...

The X-15 was a key bridge between conventional atmospheric flight and spaceflight. The North American X-15 is one of the most groundbreaking aircraft ever created in the history of aviation and space ...