posted 10-31-2012 11:48 AM               

With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight.

Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science: how to handle the heat generated at speeds up to Mach 7, how to make a rocket propulsion system that could throttle, and how to safely reenter the atmosphere from space and make a precision landing.

This book puts a human face on the feats of science and engineering that went into the X-15 program, many of them critical to the development of the Space Shuttle.

And, finally, it introduces us to the largely unsung pilots of the X-15. By the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing, thirty-one American astronauts had flown into space--eight of them astronaut-pilots of the X-15. The X-15 Rocket Plane restores these pioneers, and the others who made it happen, to their rightful place in the history of spaceflight.

Michelle Evans is the founder of Mach 25 Media and is an aerospace writer, photographer, and education specialist. She served in the U.S. Air Force working on nuclear missiles, is the producer of several documentaries about space exploration, and is a contributor to Space Daily, Space.com, and Ad Astra.

• Hardcover: 488 pages
  
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (June 1, 2013)
  
• ISBN-10: 0803228406
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0803228405

posted 04-11-2013 05:09 AM               

The other great news is that, despite serious physical problems often requiring hospitalisation and surgery, Michelle has kept her spirits up by creating an amazing website relating to her book, containing hundreds of photographs, information, guides and data that simply could not fit into what is already quite a large book. If you have any interest at all in this remarkable research aircraft I urge you to check out Michelle's awesome website and you'll be amazed at the amount of information you'll uncover.

Recent years have been extraordinarily hard for Michelle health-wise, and I must pay testament to her courage and stamina in putting together this great book - the definitive X-15 story for sure - despite constant and often terrible pain and misery. It is a magnificent tribute to her and the long-time passion she has held for this winged airplane and those who flew and worked with it.

posted 05-11-2013 12:34 PM               

Because of the work he has done, I was looking for a way for him to receive some return for the years of work he invested into this project. With that in mind, he has now given me permission to offer his work for sale as high-quality art prints in various sizes. If you have any interest in beautiful images of a really great aircraft/spacecraft, please check out what is available here.

Also on that page, I had many requests to offer embroidered program patches which I designed for the X-15, so that too is now available.

posted 05-11-2013 03:18 PM               

If you have any interest in the X-15, buy this book. I enjoyed it very much.

I would love to hear the interviews with the pilots, ground crew etc and families if they are ever available.

I knew Jack McKay survived a crash but had no idea of the extent of his injuries or the long term health effects of the injuries. That might well explain the variance in his signatures after that time.

posted 05-12-2013 05:49 PM            

I just cover-to-covered it in one day, so I guess you could say that I enjoyed it. It does an excellent job of fleshing out some of the personalities and mentioning some of the more contoversial events during the project. Most of them aren't news, but this is the frankest discussion of many of them that I've seen in print. It even manages to throw up a few technical snipets that aren't obvious from the host of engineering books about the program.

For me the stand out chapters were those about Jack McKay, Forest Petersen and Mike Adams. I was surprised to see that some people were initially so open in their prejudice against Bob Rushworth (their attitude however was no surprise at all). It was nice to see some comments counter-balancing the typical uncritical and/or self-serving Chuck Yeager myth-making that we are continuously subjected to. A more objective view of that character is long over-due. Paul Bickle was interesting too. Great to hear from some of the relatives too. I could go on, but if you are interested in the X-15, buy it. It's not like any other of the books out there.

posted 05-14-2013 02:02 PM               

Much is spent on the mission planning and simulations, an obvious precursor to later NASA methodology. Here are the roots of such procedures.

But it is the personal anecdotes that make this book such an interesting read, whether the people involved are relatively unknown or otherwise. Imagine the words Neil, Armstrong, and grounded in the same paragraph. What a story! And further imagine Neil standing outside after dinner with a friend in 1973. Neil looks up at the moon and shares a poignant, honest, emotional thought.

posted 05-15-2013 03:36 PM               

For David, the question has come up previously about the Hellcat vs Corsair. I did a lot of research to verify that this was a Corsair before writing the caption. However, there are models of each aircraft which do make it difficult to determine with absolute certainty from a photo that focuses on the cockpit as the one in the book does. Since McKay only flew Corsairs and the cockpit does match the Corsair it was determined to go with this ID. It is possible that he was not in an aircraft he was to fly, but just to sit for a portrait, so there is a slight possibility it could be a Hellcat, but Corsair seems much more likely.

With that said, I understand why you might think Hellcat, especially if you go to the wikipedia page for the Corsair, which right at the top shows the F4U with a sort of bubble canopy and not the side panels as shown in the book photo. However, scroll down to later photos and it becomes clear that the cockpit canopy changed to the one shown in the photo with the side panels. This can be seen most clearly in photos 2, 4, 14, and 17, coming down from the top of the page.

posted 05-17-2013 02:50 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by x15gal:
...there is a slight possibility it could be a Hellcat, but Corsair seems much more likely.

---

On your website you have the same picture and next to it another mis-identified Hellcat (caption McKay second from left). That's also a dead giveaway, look at the engine intake and the length of the nose. I would suggest that if those are his squadron buddies, they were a Hellcat outfit at some stage. It should be easy to check what his squadron were equipped with. You will see it has an identical canopy to the previous picture.

Unlike you I have had no access to McKay's logbooks so I don't know what he flew. However, in those days if you were qualified on fighters swapping between types was relatively informal, often consisting of just a few words about speeds and switches. The Hellcat was also more numerous early on and I'd be very surprised if a naval aviator (on fighters anyway) of that era hadn't at least flown a fam in one.

It's also possible that when the pictures were taken McKay was a recent replacement and the squadron were transitioning to the Corsair. If so, he may have been photographed with but not actually flown one.

By the way, I'm a retired naval aviator (of much more recent vintage), and used to fly warbirds. I can see how a non-aviator/engineer could think that the two cockpits look similar, but they're really very different.

posted 05-17-2013 10:58 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by GoesTo11:
I'm going to see the movie this weekend... when should I look for that, so I don't miss it?

---

posted 05-19-2013 08:51 AM               

Regarding memorabilia, I was told by the locals here that the Madison Historical Society has a collection donated by Major Rushworth, so next Saturday I plan to drive over and see what they have. Perhaps I can also find his grave.

On edit, the scans have been emailed to the email address listed on your cS profile.

posted 05-21-2013 10:04 PM               

Meantime, since Michelle noted it, here's a close-up of the X-15 model created by Quantum Mechanix for the scene in Admiral Marcus' office: