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Flight of the X-15

A test pilot wearing his helmet, has help from a technician get seated into the cockpit of the X-15 rocket.
A technician straps legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield into the cockpit of the X-15 rocket plane before an early test flight. The X-15's maiden flight occurred on June 8, 1959, during which Crossfield was carried aloft in his sleek, black rocket plane beneath the wing of a B-52 from NASA's Flight Research Center (now NASA Dryden).
NASA / North American Aviation

A technician straps legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield into the cockpit of the X-15 rocket plane before an early test flight. The X-15’s maiden flight occurred on June 8, 1959, during which Crossfield was carried aloft in his sleek, black rocket plane beneath the wing of a B-52 from NASA’s Flight Research Center (now NASA Dryden). This was the beginning of nearly a decade of flight research that probed the hypersonic speed realm and altitudes at the edge of space.Image Credit: NASA/North American Aviation