posted 07-02-2017 05:27 AM               

Space Cover #424: Pete Knight Earns the DFC

It's a pretty ho-hum looking X-15 cover. And the mission that day didn't set any records. But now, for the rest of the story...

Just over 50 years ago, on June 29, 1967, Pete Knight was launched in X-15 #1 on a mission to take one of its research instruments up to about 250,000 feet altitude (just under 50 miles high). As he rocketed up through 100,000 feet (20 miles high), in his words "the engine went 'blurp' and quit." Then multiple cockpit warning lights lit up, then every light in the aircraft went out. On the ground, the controller heard Knight say "shutdown" on the radio, then all voice, telemetry, and radar contact with the X-15 was lost. The folks on the ground feared the worst.

Meanwhile, Knight was fighting a total electrical failure in the X-15. He still had attitude control thrusters, so he could keep some control in the near vacuum at this high-altitude. Since the X-15 was flying in an arc, he had to ride it up over the top of the arc. As he rode the X-15 up and over, he mused that he should take a look at the view out the window since it may be his last. All logic said that he needed to eject from the X-15. But he was traveling about Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound) which was right at the limit for safe ejection. At about that time he regained hydraulic power, so that he could use his aerodynamic controls for landing, and saw Mud Lake, his abort landing site out the window. So, he decided to ride the X-15 out unless he lost control, and would then eject.

Now, remember that Knight had no electric power at all. Flying at multiple Mach numbers and tens-of-miles in altitude, X-15 pilots had to rely on ground tracking and radio calls from the ground to fly the complicated maneuvers for them to shed enough energy to land at a certain spot on the ground (this was before the ability to calculate such maneuvers could be computerized on board, like on the Space Shuttle). Knight had none of this available to him. He also had no control system dampers or flaps to help him maneuver the X-15 to a safe landing. Knight had to trust his experience and pilot instincts to do the right maneuvers to land the "squirrelly" acting airplane on Mud Lake. In-fact he had to use one hand on each of his two control sticks to make the controls work well enough to land. But he did!

Michelle Evans said it best in her excellent book, The X-15 Rocket Plane: "For all that happened, Knight was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for conducting a flight profile in an electrically dead X-15, a feat no one ever thought could be done. He saved the aircraft from certain destruction if he had decided instead to bail out. Everyone's instincts said that's what Pete should have done."

X-15 #1 went on to fly another day and now resides in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Next time you see a photo of it there, thank Pete Knight...