At the Edge of Space Read online

  A number of problems were encountered in the exploratory flight program of the X-15. Thus, the X-15 pilots were not just validating North American and Scott’s design. They were probing the unknown. Scott did, however, make the first flight of the X-15, an extremely significant accomplishment. Anyone who makes a first flight deserves a lot of respect. Prior to the flight program, Scott had assumed that he would participate in the entire flight program. He was eminently qualified with over eighty previous rocket flights in the X-1 and D-558-II aircraft. Paul Bikle, Dryden’s director, had the unpleasant task of informing Scott that his participation would end once the aircraft were delivered to the government.

  Scott is an extremely intelligent individual. He is a good engineer, a good pilot and when all of this was combined, he made an excellent research pilot.

  JOSEPH WALKER

  Joe was my boss during the ten years that I flew as a NASA research pilot. He was NASA Dryden’s chief pilot. Joe had a bachelor’s degree in physics from Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and was a fighter pilot in World War II flying P-38s out of North Africa. Joe began his NASA/NACA career following World War II at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He was involved in aircraft icing research at Lewis and spent many hours droning around in the crappiest winter weather that they could find in the Great Lakes region. He transferred to the NACA at Dryden in 1951 and became chief pilot in 1955.

  Joe was, in my opinion, the most competent of all the government X-15 pilots. He had extensive test experience in the early X-series aircraft and twenty-seven flights in rocket aircraft. As the chief X-15 pilot, he combined this experience with good sound engineering judgment to direct the X-15 flight program through its most crucial phases. He was not necessarily the best X-15 stick and rudder pilot, but he was a good test pilot. He was a very demanding boss who was prone to temper tantrums, but he gave his pilots plenty of freedom to conduct their own individual flight programs.

  Joe’s major flight programs prior to the X-15 included the X-3, X-4, X-5, the X1A, and the X1E. Joe received an NACA medal for heroism in 1955 for his efforts to save the B-29 and X-1A during an in-flight emergency. Joe was in the cockpit of the X-1A in the B-29 bomb bay preparing for a launch on a research mission. As Joe initiated propellant tank pressurization in the X-1A, an explosion occurred which caused Joe to lose consciousness. The explosion also blew the landing gear of the X-1A out of the wheel wells to the extended position.

  The B-29 crew opened the canopy of the X-1A and pulled Joe out of the cockpit, but by this time Joe had regained consciousness and realized that he had to deactivate the X-1A to prevent any additional damage to it or the B-29. He crawled back into the X-1A, depressurized the remaining tanks, and inerted all the other systems. This action provided the launch crew a temporary respite, but then the problem of what to do next had to be addressed. The X-1A was still a smoldering bomb, so they had to do something immediately. They had to either land right away or jettison the X-1A and let it crash. The choice of actions was biased considerably by the fact that, due to the explosion, the X-1A gear was now extended. The gear in that position was lower than the extended gear of the B-29, which meant that at landing the X-1A gear would touch down first.

  No one knew for sure what the implications of that would be. It could potentially result in a catastrophic structural failure on landing. While the flight crew and the control room crew were discussing the possible options and courses of action, one of the B-29 crew members reported that he smelled hot peroxide. That report terminated any further discussion. They could not ignore hot hydrogen peroxide. The decision was made to jettison the X-1A. The B-29 headed for the bombing range and unloaded its volatile cargo. The X-1 entered a spin after launch and crashed into the desert. The B-29 made a successful landing on the lakebed with a very dejected crew.

  Just prior to the X-15 flight program, Joe did some pioneering work in reaction controls, flying an F-104 that had been modified to include a reaction control system. A zoom maneuver was developed to test these controls at very low dynamic pressures. The zoom maneuver starting from Mach 2 at 35,000 feet would result in a peak altitude of 85,000 to 90,000 feet. The indicated airspeed going over the top of this maneuver would be less than 30 knots. At that speed, aerodynamic stability was almost nonexistent and the aircraft behaved as though it were in space. Reaction controls could be readily evaluated under these conditions. The results of these tests were used in the design of the X-15 reaction control system.

  An incident occurred just prior to the first flight of this system that demonstrated the volatility of the hydrogen peroxide used as the energy source for the reaction controls. Joe Walker had completed his walk around inspection of the aircraft and was in the process of strapping in to the aircraft when he smelled what he thought was hot peroxide. He decided to get out of the airplane and do another visual inspection. As he started around the aircraft, the peroxide tank located behind the cockpit exploded. That explosion produced the first coke bottle F-104 with exaggerated area ruling. It took several months to repair the damage but our mechanics and sheet metal technicians did a beautiful job. You can see the results of their efforts if you examine the F-104 hanging in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

  This reaction control system design was later incorporated into two rocket powered F-104 trainer aircraft developed by Lockheed for the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School. Chuck Yeager lost control of one of these aircraft during a record altitude attempt and had to eject.

  In his book, The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe mentions the argument between Joe Walker and Gus Grissom about who would fly the highest and the fastest. I am surprised that Tom knew about that argument since both Joe and Gus were dead long before the book was published. I happened to be with Joe and Gus when they had that argument. Joe and I had traveled to the Cape to watch Grissom’s flight. We sat around for over a week waiting for the flight to launch because of the many delays and aborts. In that discussion, Joe pointed out that the X-15 engine had almost as much thrust as the Redstone booster engine—60,000 pounds of thrust in the X-15 versus 76,000 pounds in the Redstone, and the X-15 engine had a throttle. He also pointed out that the X-15 pilot was flying the boost profile, while Gus was just along for the ride. In terms of actual performance, the X-15 and the Mercury-Redstone were comparable. Al Shepard reached a maximum speed of 5,180 MPH and a maximum altitude of 116 miles on his Mercury Redstone flight. The X-15 achieved a maximum speed of 4,100 MPH without tanks, 4,520 MPH with tanks, and a maximum altitude of 67 miles. Not a huge difference between the performance of the two vehicles. The X-15 theoretically had the performance to reach an altitude of 100 miles, but it could not safely reenter from that altitude.

  Joe was not really arguing seriously. He knew the astronauts were ultimately going to go much faster and higher. He was just giving Gus a bad time, but Joe was a little irritated by the special treatment that the astronauts were receiving. They were allowed to accept gratuities and sign a contract with Life magazine for their exclusive stories. Joe, as a civil servant, was not allowed to accept any kind of gratuity and yet, he and the astronauts both worked for NASA. Joe was also upset that his salary as a NASA pilot was approximately half that of an airline pilot. Joe did a lot of this type of griping, but he would not have traded jobs with anyone. He loved his job and it was a sad day for American aerospace when he perished in a midair collision in 1966.

  ROBERT M. WHITE

  Bob White became the prime USAF X-15 pilot following the death of Ivan Kinchloe. Bob was a fighter pilot in World War II, flying P-51s in Europe. He was shot down on his fifty-second mission in February of 1945 and remained a prisoner of war until his release in April of 1945. Following World War II, Bob joined the air force reserve at Mitchel Air Force Base in New York, and attended New York University. He graduated in 1951 as an electrical engineer. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and remained on active duty following the war.

  He
transferred to Edwards AFB in 1954 and attended the Experimental Test Pilot School. He then served as a test pilot, deputy chief of the flight test operations division, and later, as assistant chief of the manned spacecraft operations branch, all while flying the X-15. Bob flew a number of test programs prior to flying the X-15, the most notable of which was the F-107 program.

  I did not know Bob very well because he left the X-15 program before I began flying it. Bob seemed to be very bright and very capable as a test pilot. To me he seemed to be very formal and somewhat aloof. He seemed to be less formal and much friendlier when he returned to Edwards many years later as the center commander.

  FORREST S. PETERSEN

  Forrest “Pete” Petersen served as a naval officer during World War II. Pete attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis and initially served as a member of the “black shoe” surface navy. He later went through flight training and became a fighter pilot in the “brown shoe” carrier navy. He was selected by the navy to participate as the navy pilot representative in the X-15 program. The navy was a partner in the X-15 program although a very small one in terms of financial contributions. I believe the navy only invested ten million dollars in the program compared to the three or four hundred million that the USAF invested, and yet the navy was allowed one pilot slot. That was a tremendous return on their investment.

  Forrest Petersen was a real breath of fresh air for the pilot’s office when he came to NASA to participate in the X-15 program. He came about a year before he flew his first X-15 flight. Joe Walker and Pete became good friends immediately. Joe treated Pete exactly as he did his own pilots. He assigned him to NASA research programs to keep him current while he was waiting to fly the X-15.

  Pete and I served as coproject pilots on the ALSOR (Air Launched Sounding Rocket) program, his first NASA program. The intent of that program was to release a balloon from an air launched rocket at over 1,000,000 feet altitude (approximately 190 miles) and then measure its rate of descent to determine air density. Pete made the first rocket launch from our F-104 launcher aircraft. We tracked the rocket up to about 700,000 feet altitude, but we could not detect the balloon that should have been released at peak altitude. We assumed that the release mechanism had malfunctioned, so Pete and I decided to try and find the rocket to verify this.

  Our radar had tracked the rocket during its descent all the way to impact. The rocket had impacted in the Camp Irwin restricted area in the vicinity of the Three Sisters Lakes. Pete and I flew the C-47 up to that area on a Saturday morning and landed on the lake closest to the impact point. We both had hangovers from a party the night before. We began trudging through the desert sagebrush looking for the rocket.

  We had the radar map to pinpoint the impact location, but the accuracy of that radar plot at that distance was questionable. What made the entire situation even more ridiculous was that the rocket had impacted after descending from 700,000 feet altitude. To think that there would be any recognizable piece of that rocket was idiotic to say the least. That did not deter us though.

  We spent all morning wandering around the desert stirring up the lizards and the sidewinders. We finally came upon a Basque sheepherder with his flock and his dogs. We tried to ask him by words and gestures if he had seen a rocket fall from the sky and hit the ground, but he could not understand a thing we were saying. In retrospect that was an amusing adventure. Two dumb pilots out in the middle of the desert looking for a lost rocket, trying to converse with a Basque sheepherder while his dogs were nipping at our ass—that is one of the ways I remember Pete.

  Pete was a world-class drinker in those days, as many of us were. Pete, Jack McKay, Joe Vensel, the chief of flight operations, and I decided to stop for a drink one day after work. Pete introduced us to Baltics: a shot of gin and a shot of vodka mixed with a lemon twist. We each had three or four of those at Juanita’s in Rosamond and then decided to head for home. As we approached the County Line Bar, we decided to stop for another drink. We had three or four more Baltics there and then ran out of money. Pete suggested that we move to the Desert Inn in Lancaster since he had a credit card that they would honor.

  By the time we got to the Desert Inn, it was after eight o’clock. Joe Vensel wanted to go home, but we wanted him to stay and, since he was riding with us, he was stuck. We had a couple more drinks when Pete suggested we all go over to his house to meet his wife, who had just moved to Lancaster to join Pete. After meeting Pete’s wife, we had a drink and then decided to go back to the Desert Inn.

  Joe Vensel again tried to convince us to take him home, but we would have none of that. After all, the evening was young. About nine o’clock, we noticed that Joe Vensel had disappeared. It turned out he had called his wife and she had come to pick him up. Jack had flown an early flight that morning, so about 9:30 P.M. he finally asked to be taken home. Pete suggested that we have just one more, which we did and Jack finally gave up and went to sleep on the bar. Pete and I closed the bar. We woke Jack up, took him home, and then I decided it would be nice to introduce Pete to my wife. You can imagine the reception that we got when we showed up at my house about 2:30 A.M.

  The next morning, Jack was scheduled to fly the X-1E. I was scheduled to be the copilot on the B-29 mothership. We all got to work on time and went down to the locker room to change into flight gear. While we were dressing, Walt Williams, the first director of Dryden and an early proponent of the X-15, burst into the locker room with Joe Vensel in tow. Joe Vensel had told Walt about our drinking bout the night before. Walt and Joe had decided to cancel the flight. Pete and I argued and convinced them that Jack had gone to sleep at 9:30 and was okay to fly. We did not tell them where he had gone to sleep. They reluctantly agreed to go ahead with the flight, but they did decide to put Pete instead of me in the B-29 as copilot. Pete appeared to be in better shape. The flight went off without a hitch.

  Petersen also served as a project pilot on an F-107 that we acquired from the USAF. The F-107 was a prototype with several advanced technology features. It had some unusual features also, such as an engine inlet located above and behind the cockpit. The wags said that this was a backup pilot escape system. The pilot only had to open the canopy and he would be sucked into the inlet and spit out the tailpipe. Another unusual feature was an all moving vertical tail. The advanced technology features included a variable geometry inlet and a command augmentation control system. We had modified the aircraft to incorporate an X-15 sidearm controller to evaluate the controller prior to the first flight of the X-15.

  I was chasing Pete on one of those evaluation flights. The flight plan called for some evaluation maneuvers at 1.7 Mach number. Pete accelerated out to the desired Mach number and began his handling quality maneuvers. I was chasing him in an F-100A and fell way behind because my maximum speed was only about 1.4 Mach. He had almost disappeared from sight when all of a sudden I saw a series of light flashes from the sun reflecting off a gyrating airplane. For a second I thought Pete was doing some unplanned acrobatics. Then I heard Pete say, “Son-of-a-bitch!” The huge vertical tail had momentarily deflected all the way over to one side. That had caused the airplane to do a couple of quick snap rolls which then stalled the engine. Pete heard a tremendous bang and thought the back end of the airplane had blown off. He finally recovered and we went back home to see what damage had been done. For some reason, Pete never thought much of that airplane.

  The airplane had another bad characteristic that gave us some problems. The wheels and brakes tended to heat up excessively during ground operations. Some of this was due to the high-idle thrust which in turn required continuous braking to keep the taxi speed down. But some of the heating was due to just rolling friction without braking. This excessive heating would cause the tires to blow out and the wheels to disintegrate. It became standard procedure when the aircraft taxied back to our ramp to wait until the tires blew before approaching the aircraft. The crew stood by with firebottles and nitrogen bottles to extinguish any fire that might result.<
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  On one occasion when the tires blew, pieces of the wheel went swishing over the X-1E and its crew, about 100 yards away on the ramp. We finally gave up taxiing it altogether. We would tow it to and from the runway for each flight—even then the wheels got hot.

  This wheel heating problem finally crippled the airplane. Scott Crossfield requested a checkout in the aircraft to evaluate the X-15 sidearm controller. He attempted a takeoff on the north lakebed but aborted because of a problem. By the time he got the airplane stopped, the wheels had overheated and ignited a wheel fire. Scott called for a fire truck, but before it could get there and extinguish the fire, the fire had damaged the wing structure. The airplane never flew again.

  JOHN B. “JACK” McKAY

  Jack was a navy fighter pilot who had served in the South Pacific during World War II. Jack did not tell many war stories, but he did tell me about an accident that he had while in the navy that really made my hair stand on end.

  Jack was flying as a wingman in a flight of four F6F Hellcats on a cross-country flight into Houston, Texas. When they arrived at Houston, the weather was overcast with rain and some fog. In that day and age, very few fighter pilots flew instruments, let alone instrument approaches. The flight leader decided to go out over the water and let down through the overcast to get under the clouds and make a visual approach into Houston. As the flight descended in the clouds, it became obvious that the bottom of the overcast was very low. They were at 300 feet and had not reached the bottom of the clouds.