At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program
by Milton O. Thompson

List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $15.29
You Save: $9.66 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $14.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program

Book Review: Great Memoir by a Legendary Research Pilot
Summary: 5 Stars

"At the Edge of Space" describes the conduct of this program from the first flight on June 8, 1959, until the 199th and final flight on October 28, 1968. Initiated under the NACA regime--although all of the flights were made following the creation of NASA--the X-15 program was a joint venture with the military to test both the capacities of rocket-powered aircraft at hypersonic speeds (five or more times the speed of sound) and at extremely high altitudes. Milton O. Thompson describes well the major phases of the program: the testing of engine capability, altitude and speed confines, and human abilities to operate under such extreme conditions. The X-15 program yielded not only this information but also engineering and materials information integral to later spaceflight missions.

The author, who spent his career at NASA's Dryden Flight Test Facility in the California desert, was one of the dozen research pilots who worked on the project during its nearly decade-long operation. Because of this background and the emphasis here toward autobiography, sans scholarly paraphernalia, readers learn quite a lot about the inner-workings of a flight research program and the human aspects of the pilots who labored on it. Some of those involved have become well-known figures in aerospace research and development circles, among them Scott Crossfield, Joe Engle, and the author. Moreover, pilot Neil Armstong, who also wrote a foreword for this volume, has become legendary because of his command of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

Thompson is especially strong in describing the human dimension of the X-15 effort, enlivening the narrative with both heroic and humorous anecdotes. Readers, for instance, get to go bar-hopping with some of the X-15 pilots and learn something about their concerns in flying an experimental aircraft. These vignettes are both entertaining and illuminating, and while "At the Edge of Space" has some of the elan and persona made so popular by Tom Wolfe in "The Right Stuff" (1979) there is more sense here that research pilots were only one part of a very large and complex team of individuals working on the X-15 project.

Thompson also does a very good job of treating exceptionally technical issues in a manner understandable to non-specialists. In this way, he is able to explain what exactly was at stake in the project. Much of the technical specifications he leaves to an exceptionally useful appendix containing the details of flight-by-flight activities. The result is the publication of the a wholly adequate general history of the X-15 program from inception through last flight. It is a different publication than a professional historian would have written, and Thompson admits as much in a note at the conclusion of the book, but it represents a fine first-person account of the overall effort.

I hope someone will take up his challenge to present a fully- documented historical account that places the X-15 program in the larger context of the history of technology and the development of aerospace systems. As it is, "At the Edge of Space" will stand as benchmark to begin analysis of this important research program.

Summary of At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program

20th Century Books

• Books > Subjects > History > Americas > United States
• State & Local
• Military > Aviation
• World
• Travel > Specialty Travel > Air Travel