https://aviospace.org/north-american-x-15-hypersonic-aircraft-in-pictures/ Sat, 12 Sep 2026 16:18:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 https://aviospace.org/north-american-x-15-hypersonic-aircraft-in-pictures/#comment-6451 Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:37:46 +0000 https://aviospace.org/?p=6583#comment-6451 […] One of the oddities in aviation is the US is the fact that this nation hasn’t produced a supersonic airliner. The USSR had its marvel that was the Tuploev Tu-144, while Europe had the iconic Concorde (operated by Air France and British Airways). The absence of a supersonic airline in the US is more puzzling against the fact that the US had built a highly successful hypersonic program by the name of the North American X-15. […]

]]> https://aviospace.org/north-american-x-15-hypersonic-aircraft-in-pictures/#comment-6409 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:13:03 +0000 https://aviospace.org/?p=6583#comment-6409 […] rockets into space is expensive. The North American X-15, the hypersonic research program that was the first airplane to have touched space, cost $300 […]

]]> https://aviospace.org/north-american-x-15-hypersonic-aircraft-in-pictures/#comment-6369 Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:01:07 +0000 https://aviospace.org/?p=6583#comment-6369 […] North American X-15, a rocket-powered hypersonic aircraft (aircraft flying at five times the speed of sound or above are known as “hypersonic”), reached an altitude as high as 354,200 feet- making it the aircraft that has attained the greatest vertical distance. As this aircraft mimicked rockets too much, there were serious considerations during the incipient days of Project Mercury about whether an extended version of the X-15 would be the first spacecraft to carry humans to space.  […]

]]>