Customer Reviews

X-15: The NASA Mission Reports: Apogee Books Space Series 13

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For the book "X-15" (The NASA Mission Reports) Editor Robert Godwin collected all important documents from NASA about the "X-15": These are: Biographies, Development of the X-15 Research Aircraft 1954-1959, Bi-Annual Reports to Congress, Nort American proposal, Interim Flight Manual, Utility Flight Manual, X-15 Pilot Rescue Manual, X-15 Flight Log, X-15 The Movie Correspondence, X-15 Accident Report, X-15 Press Release and X-15 Contractor Advertisments The book also contains 8 all-color-pages and hundreds of technical drawings, diagramms and tables. But the best (as always) is the included CD-Rom that features some NASA-Footage, Documets, an interview with Bill Dana, Fligt Logs, Transcipts, books (!) and a VR-Quicktime-model of the X-15. It is important to notice that this is not an dramatic pocket book with test-pilot-heroes (like Neil Armstrong (!) ) but a collection of technical NASA-documents. But why a book about a X-plane in a series of books about spaceflight? The X-15 was the plane that flew to the edge of space and broke some altitude and speed records and gave important impulses for the development of the Space Shuttle. This book shouldn`t be missing in any aerospace-library and is essential for any technical interested people.

I collect Flight Manuals for aircraft, with particular emphasis on those that I'll never get to fly (SR-71, B-17, Apollo CSM, F-16, B-737, etc.) This book includes the Interim Flight Manual for the X-15, with procedures, system descriptions, etc.

It also include a great deal of information from the proposals and plans used to develop it. I haven't even gotten to the CD-ROM yet.

If you're an airplane geek, and want to know how this stuff worked, I strongly recommend this.

This is the first book on The NASA Mission Reports series, which includes a user's manual on the X-15 and even information about the contractors. The book includes the original NAA document on the proposed X-15 during 1950's.

The other books (Apollo) on these series do not includes user manuals or contractor information.

Excelent book!

I have been a huge fan of all the other volumes in The NASA Mission Reports series, especially the three volume Apollo 11 set, but when I bought this volume I was expecting more of an emphasis on the actual flight testing results (hence the title, "X-15 The NASA Mission Reports"), rather than a very protracted discussion concerning the contracting for the aircraft including such minutia as Annual Reports to Congress and budgetary memos.

I do like the systems descriptions and diagrams very much. They are quite complete and interesting, as is the background and history of the aircraft. I also enjoyed the reprint of the flight manuals, though you will discover that there are essentially two very similar sets of flight manual information that are fairly redundant.

Unfortunately, there is a relative dearth of information on the individual test flights themselves, with only general summaries being provided. For a better overall look at the program, I would recommend "At The Edge of Space" by X-15 pilot Milt Thompson (with forward by Neil Armstrong). The Thompson book is better at explaining the actual workings of the missions and results obtained, I feel. An added feature in the Thompson book is a detailed account of the Mike Adams accident in the third X-15, a subject of great interest to any potential readers of this book, but essentially glossed over in the NASA Mission Report.

In summary, I think this is a useful book, it is filled with extensive documentation from the program, and will be of great use to aerospace historians. My reservation is that, basically, it is a systems and contracting history book rather that a Mission Report.

The "NASA Mission Reports" series, compiled by Robert Godwin, offers collections of essentially unedited original documents from the flights of the golden age of space exploration: press kits, operation reports, crew debriefings, the works. Since there is only a brief introduction to get things going, the casual reader will certainly be overwhelmed by the technical and operational detail. The decision not to "polish" these sometimes rather plain-looking documents in any way, or even edit out spelling errors from the original sources, gives the books a slightly "messy" quality. However, for these very reasons the series is a dream come true for the serious space enthusiast or historian: this is the real thing, a wealth of unaltered, unabridged information directly from the NASA archives. Holding history in your hands.

One of the most famous aircraft of all time, the North American X-15 flew to the edge of space in the 1960's and collected data on hypersonic flight that would be used in many future projects, including the Space Shuttle. Reaching altitudes of over 350,000 feet and a maximum speed of Mach 6.7, it arguably became the world's first reusable spacecraft, and an item of legend for every aerospace aficionado.

Since the X-15 was an entire program and not a self-contained mission like most other volumes in the series, Godwin's task of compiling documents within the format was more difficult than usual. He comes up with a varied and comprehensive selection, including biographies of the twelve pilots who flew the X-15, a contemporary 1959 development history by Robert Houston (Wright Historian), NASA's semi-annual reports to Congress, the entire proposal that won North American the contract, now declassified USAF development plans, and - the holy grail for aircraft buffs - the Flight and Pilot Rescue Manuals and Flight Logs for all 199 missions.

There is even some oddly interesting Hollywood correspondence on the long-forgotten 1961 movie "X-15", as well as the mandatory myriad of photographs, drawings and diagrams. Finally, the CD-ROM features some rare X-15 videos, an interview with pilot Bill Dana looking back on the program, several hundred photographs, and yet more NASA documents. That's about as exhaustive as it gets with just one book, and it demands conscious and patient reading to make productive use. Data junkies will find one of the most rewarding single volumes of the series, and rejoice.

built and designed by harrison storms for the then north american aviation, now rockwell, the x-15 flew higher/faster than any aircraft/plane to date, including sr-71 blackbird. scott crossfield was first engineer/pilot for north american to fly test her before naca/nasa stepped into scene. she ran on liquid oxygen and anhydrous ammonia. she flew mach 6.7 or 4520 mph! and over 456,000 feet high paving way for projects mercury, gemini, apollo, skylab and shuttle. she was earliest example of stealth technology to some extent! almost 3 times faster than a 30 caliber rifle bullett! see my other review on x-15 at: x-15 diary book by richard tregaskis here, on amazon.com. a must have/read for all space, rocket and aviation buffs like myself.

The X-15 is often overlooked as our first space plane. Some of the pilots who flew her, including Neil Armstrong, were conidered Astronauts because they flew over 50 miles high. The technology gained from this program was later used on the Space Shuttle.

This book gets down to the nuts and bolts of the X-15 including flight manuals as well as documenting the history, pilots, and flights of the program. The CD features footage of flights and additional documentation including flight transcripts. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the early days of the space program.

This book presents information on the X-15 in a great format. The contents include two versions of the flight manual and a version of the manual on pilot rescue. The CD is a great addition to the book. It is wonderful to see the X-15 in flight. If you want an understanding of the X-15, this is the book to get!