|KIT:||Revell 1/64 X-15A-1| |KIT #:||8610 - History Makers|
|PRICE:||$12.95 back in 1982/3| |NOTES:||Reissue of a 60's era
kit| A joint program by NASA, the Air Force, the Navy, and North
American operated the most remarkable of all the rocket research
aircraft. Composed of an internal structure of titanium and a
skin surface of a chrome-nickel alloy known as Inconel X, the
X-15 had its first, unpowered glide flight on June 8, 1959,
while the first powered flight took place on September 17, 1959.
Because of the large fuel consumption of its rocket engine, the
X-15 was air launched from a B-52 aircraft at about 45,000 ft
and speeds upward of 500 mph. The airplane first set speed
records in the Mach 4-6 range with Mach 4.43 on March 7, 1961;
Mach 5.27 on June 23, 1961; Mach 6.04 on November 9, 1961; and
Mach 6.7 on October 3, 1967. It also set an altitude record of
354,200 feet (67 miles) on August 22, 1963, and provided an
enormous wealth of data on hypersonic air flow, aerodynamic
heating, control and stabili