The whole nine yards -- A record high -- Gaining speed -- Naval engagement -- Changing course -- Straight and steady -- Skipping out -- On a roll -- Inconel meets celluloid -- Fastest man alive -- Chasing experiments -- In the line of duty -- Snow at Edwards -- Afterword.
Summary
With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight. Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science: how to handle the heat generated at speeds up to Mach 7, how to make a rocket propulsion system that could thrott.