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Space/Science » in reply to NASA did do it with the X-15

re: NASA did do it with the X-15
gbaikie — (archived)

"It currently holds the world record for the fastest speed ever reached by an aircraft.

During the X-15 program, 13 flights (by eight pilots) met the USAF spaceflight criteria by exceeding the altitude of 50 miles (80.47 km), thus qualifying the pilots for astronaut status; some pilots also qualified for NASA astronaut wings.

Of all the X-15 missions, two flights (by the same pilot) qualified as space flights, per the international FAI definition of a spaceflight by exceeding a 100 kilometer
...
The altitudes attained by the X-15 aircraft do not match that of Alan Shephard's 1961 NASA spacecapsule flight (116 miles), nor subsequent NASA spacecapsules and space shuttle flights.
However, the X-15 flights did reign supreme among rocket-powered aircraft until the third spaceflight of Space Ship One in 2004. The widely-reported record achieved, by the small X-43A scramjet testbed, on 16 November 2004, of approximately Mach 10 (6,600 mph, 10,622 km/h, 2.95 km/s) at 95,000 ft (29 km, 17.99 mi) is an air-breathing jet engine record."
Maximum speed: Mach 6.70 (4,520 mph / 7,274 km/h)
Flight 188 3 October 1967 4,519 mph Altitude: 36.3 miles Pilot: Pete Knight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-15

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