POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Jan 19, 2022 : The North American X-15 is actually a rocket-powered supersonic aircraft. It was jointly developed by the US Air Force and the US space agency NASA as part of the X-Plane series. The first North American X-15 flew in the sky more than 60 years ago. By far, the supersonic aircraft could fly at the fastest speed among manned aircraft. In the wake of the Cold War with Russia, the United States began research to build the aircraft.
The first journey started in 1959. Since then it has flown 199 times experimentally in nine years. America made a team of 12 people to fly X-15. Neil Armstrong was the first to set foot on the moon.
At the end of World War II, the US Air Force and NASA built 60 experimental aircraft. At the start of production in 1952, the X-15 supersonic had a speed of 600 miles per hour. The speed was five times faster than the sound.
The supersonic had to make emergency landings only twice on about 200 flights. Pilot Michael Adams was killed in a crash in 1986. Excluding the two accidents, the X-15 did not suffer much damage in just nine years of its life. The North American X-15 launched in December 1986. However, the aircraft set a record in the year before retiring. It is still intact today. That year, a pilot named Pete Knight sat in the cockpit of the supersonic. He flew the plane at a speed of 4,520 miles per hour or 6.6 times the speed of sound.
This supersonic aircraft could fly many times faster than the speed of the wind. It doesn’t look like a conventional plane, much like a bullet. It was actually a rocket, attached to the cockpit. The driver used to fly ‘North American X-15’ while sitting in it. If it fell into the hands of a skilled pilot, the plane could fly at about seven times the speed.
One of the pilots of the plane was Bill Dana. “This is the” real “plane that flies,” he said. Christian Gelzer, head of NASA’s Armstrong Research Flight Center, said the three senses সবচেয়ে the highest speed, the highest excitement, and the most fear হতো came together during the flight.
Christian Gelzer added: “The risk of reaching the goal was not small. Such aircraft had to fly higher than ordinary aircraft. Our goal was to fly two and a half million feet above the ground. And I will not say that it is a big risk. ‘ He said research into building the aircraft began in the context of the US Cold War with Russia.
Its flight pattern was as different as the speed of the aircraft. Unlike other aircraft it did not run on the runway and fly in the sky; Instead, it was launched into the sky with the help of B-52 bombers. Gelzer said the B-52 bomber could fly at more than 600 miles per hour from Edward Airport in Southern California to Nevada or Utah. At that time the X-15 was hanging under the abdomen of the aircraft. The X-15 was launched into the sky after ascending 45,000 feet above the ground. Then the pilot would start the engine of the 50 feet long supersonic aircraft.
The fuel for this aircraft was also fancy. The mixture of ammonia with liquid oxygen was used as fuel.
The fact that the plane was different can be understood from the words of Milt Thomson, another pilot of this plane. “It floated in the sky like any other plane,” he said. But when it started to rise, it seemed that no one cared. Of all the planes I flew, I would have been relieved if the engine of this one had stopped. ‘
A different character has been seen in the case of landing on the runway of this supersonic aircraft. Most aircraft prepare to reach the runway at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. However, the X-15 would start at an altitude of 20,000 feet.
