PETE KNIGHT’S WILD RIDES
BY LATE 1962, NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION’S THREE X-15S SEEMINGLY HAD DONE IT ALL.
They had flown past Mach 6 and nearly 60 miles high, launching from two modified Boeing B-52s and propelled by 57,000-pound-thrust rocket engines burning nearly nine tons of anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen in less than 90 seconds. Their pilots held the Harmon and Collier trophies, and America’s charismatic young president, John F. Kennedy, hailed their heroism. They had their own motion picture, X-15, featuring Charles Bronson, Mary Tyler Moore and the twangy narration of ex–B-24 combat commander Jimmy Stewart.
But when the second X-15 launched on the morning of November 9, 1962, for a Mach 5-plus stability investigation, the rocket plane’s Thiokol LR99 engine sputtered at just 30 percent thrust, forcing NASA Flight Research Center pilot Jack McKay to make an emergency landing on the baked clay of Nevada’s Mud Lake. As it glided earthward, the X-15 still retained some residual propellants. Then its flaps wouldn’t deflect. Sinking fast, it slammed down at more than 290 mph. A strong down-load imposed by its deflected horizontal stabilizer did the rest.
Investigators reported: “The left main-gear strut collapsed; the ventral fin struck the ground and was torn to bits; the left stabilizer dug into the ground and was torn off; the nosewheels failed at the hubs; the airplane skidded for about 1,400-ft on the left wing tip, the right main-gear skid, and the nosewheel strut; the airplane gradually turned toward the left, and finally turned over when the right wing tip dug into the ground.”
McKay was trapped in a smoking, rumbling hulk leaking propellants and venting gases. As a twin-rotor Piasecki H-21B helicopter blew ammonia fumes away from the cockpit, rescuers ignored the risks and freed
