posted 06-22-2014 11:18 PM               

Space Cover #270: Troubled Flight for the X-15

This recent post on the first glide flight of the X-15 has me going through my X-15 material and reviewing flights that are hard to find covers for. As it states no one has seen a cover for the first glide flight on June 8, 1959 piloted by Scott Crossfield.

The first powered flight took place on September 17, 1959 also with Scott Crossfield as the pilot. The flight reached a speed of Mach 2.11 and an altitude of 52,341 ft. Fortunately there are covers to be found for this flight from several different cachet makers including George Goldey from Canton, Texas. These covers are scarce but can be found fairly frequently.

The second powered flight of the X-15 again piloted by Scott Crossfield took place on October 17, 1959 reaching a speed of Mach 2.15 and altitude of 61,781 feet. Again, a scarce cover to find but serviced by multiple collectors/cachet makers — harder to find than the first powered flight covers but covers can be found for this flight.

Then, trouble for the X-15 program with the third powered flight of the X-15 on November 5, 1959 as this would be the first in-flight emergency after the launch from the B-52. The roll damper dropped out at launch. An engine fire and explosion in bottom LR-11 engine occurred in flight with the flight speed only reaching Mach 1.0 and an altitude of 45,462 feet. Structural failure at instrument bay, just forward of LOX tank, followed. The flight ended with the nose gear failing on landing due to a design flaw and excessive propellant weight. While the previous X-15 flights landed at Rogers Lake Bed, Scott Crossfield landed this flight at Rosamond. X-15 number 2 aircraft was then returned to North American Aviation for modifications of fuselage and nose gear.

Trouble would occur for X-15 cover collectors for this flight as well. The only cover that I know of for this flight was serviced for George Goldey and I have seen a total of one of them in thirty years. This cover is on everyone's X-15 want list including at least three members of the SCOTW writers. I was fortunate to be able to get a copy of the Goldcraft cover for this flight from its owner to reference and it is shown at the top of this post. Why is this Goldcraft cover so much harder to find than other Goldcraft X-15 covers for earlier and later flights? We'll never know that but it is similar to the very rare Mercury Scout Goldcraft cover but that's another story...

Anyone else have a cover for this flight? Or even seen one?

So if you find a X-15 cover for November 5, 1959 you'll be in an elite group of X-15 collectors...

posted 07-23-2022 08:12 PM               

And back to what Tom said about the rarity of November 5, 1959 X-15 covers: Tom’s was the first one I ever saw. The second was a typed-cachet, Kronstein-addressed cover that showed up in a big lot of X-15 covers in the Leo Malz estate auction and was resold individually on eBay for $405 a couple months ago. And the third was this one that I just bought (for a lot less than $405!).