X-15 Flight 90

X-15 Flight 90

Crew

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.
*Joseph A. Walker (1)

Mission parameters

*Mass: 15,195 kg fueled; 6,577 kg burnout; 6,260 kg landed
*Maximum Altitude: 106.01 km
*Range: 534 km
*Burn Time: 84.6 seconds
*Mach: 5.50
*Launch Vehicle: NB-52B Bomber #008

Mission highlights

Maximum Speed - 5,971 km/h. Maximum Altitude - 106,010 m. 80 cm diameter balloon towed on 30 m line to measure air density. First X-15 flight over 100 km (a height known as the Karman line). First flight launched over Smith Dry Lake, NV. Experiments: Towed balloon, horizon scanner, photometer, infrared and ultraviolet. Balloon instrumentation failed.

The mission was flown by X-15 #3, serial 56-6672 on its 21st flight.

Launched by: NB-52B #008, Pilots Fulton & Bement. Takeoff: 17:19. UTC Landing: 19:04 UTC.

Chase pilots: Crews, Dana, Rogers, Daniel and Wood.

The X-15 engine burns about 85 seconds. Near the end of the burn, acceleration builds up to about 4 G (39 m/s²). Weightlessness lasts for 3 to 5 minutes. Re-entry heating warms the exterior of the X-15 to 650 °C. in places. During pull up after re-entry acceleration builds up to 5"g" (49 m/s²) for 20 seconds. The entire flight is about 12 minutes from launch to landing.

Pilot Robert White commented on his high altitude X-15 flights, "My flights to 217,000 feet [66 km] and 314,750 feet [96 km] were very dramatic in revealing the earth's curvature ... at my highest altitude I could turn my head through a 180º arc and wow! - the earth is really round. At my peak altitude I was roughly over the Arizona/California border in the area of Las Vegas, and this was how I described it: looking to my left I felt I could spit into the Gulf of California. Looking to my right I felt I could toss a dime into San Francisco Bay."




References

*X-15 The NASA Mission Reports - by Robert Godwin - ISBN 1-896522-65-3;NASA reports (PDF format)
* [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20000068530_2000075022.pdf Hypersonics Before the Shuttle: A Concise History of the X-15 Research Airplane]
* [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19650010561_1965010561.pdf X-15 research results with a selected bibliography]
* [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19920075739_1992075739.pdf Flight experience with shock impingement and interference heating on the X-15-2 research airplane 1968]
* [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680016245_1968016245.pdf Thermal protection system X-15A-2 Design report 1968]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Flight attendant — Flight attendants or cabin crew (historically known as stewards, air hosts/hostesses, or stewardesses) are members of an aircrew employed by airlines to ensure the safety and comfort of the passengers aboard commercial flights as well as on… …   Wikipedia

  • Flight controller — Flight controllers are personnel who aid in the operations of a space flight, working in Mission Control Centers such as NASA s Mission Control Center, or ESA s Operations Center. Flight controllers sit at computer consoles and use telemetry to… …   Wikipedia

  • Flight 19 — Artist s depiction of five Avengers. Occurrence summary Date December 5, 1945 …   Wikipedia

  • Flight plan — Flight plans are documents filed by pilots or a Flight Dispatcher with the local Civil Aviation Authority (e.g. FAA in the USA) prior to departure. They generally include basic information such as departure and arrival points, estimated time en… …   Wikipedia

  • Flight 93 National Memorial — IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape) …   Wikipedia

  • Flight test — is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops and gathers data during flight of an aircraft and then analyses the data to evaluate the flight characteristics of the aircraft and validate its design, including safety aspects. The flight… …   Wikipedia

  • Flight Simulator (Série) — Flight Simulator est une série de jeux vidéo éditée par Microsoft sur PC. Ce sont des simulations de pilotage se voulant réalistes. Sommaire 1 Histoire 2 Extensions 2.1 Amélioration environnement Flight simulator …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Flight Simulator (serie) — Flight Simulator (série) Flight Simulator est une série de jeux vidéo éditée par Microsoft sur PC. Ce sont des simulations de pilotage se voulant réalistes. Sommaire 1 Histoire 2 Extensions 2.1 Amélioration environnement Flight simulator …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Flight Simulator (série) — Flight Simulator est une série de jeux vidéo éditée par Microsoft sur PC. Ce sont des simulations de pilotage se voulant réalistes. Sommaire 1 Histoire 2 Extensions 2.1 Amélioration de l environnement Flight simulator …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Flight simulator (série) — Flight Simulator est une série de jeux vidéo éditée par Microsoft sur PC. Ce sont des simulations de pilotage se voulant réalistes. Sommaire 1 Histoire 2 Extensions 2.1 Amélioration environnement Flight simulator …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Flight control modes (electronic) — New aircraft designs like this Boeing 777 rely on sophisticated flight computers to aid and protect the aircraft in flight. These are governed by computational laws which assign flight control modes during flight Aircraft with fly by wire flight… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”