Engle is the only human being to have flown two different types of winged vehicles in space, the X-15 and the Space Shuttle. He is the only astronaut to have manually flown the Shuttle through reentry and landing, In November 1981 he commanded the second flight of the Shuttle "Columbia", manually flying the re-entry from Mach 25 throughout the entire approach and landing - the first and only time that a winged aerospace vehicle was manually flown from orbit to a landing! What a great aviator he is. Thanks Amy for your great videos and channel.
When I was a child, I lived in Fullerton California. I remember being out on the playground one day and watching a plane very high in the sky and suddenly, a second contrail came from the same jet and flew faster and beyond the front of the first plane. I knew about the X-15 and I believe that is what I saw... the launch of an X-15 from the playground of my school. It would have been around 1967 when I was in 4th or 5th grade.
in my time in aviation safety management, I have met Jack Lousma (Skylab 3, STS-3), Steve Nagel (RIP), Eugene Cernan (Twice in 2009 and 2014, RIP), Gerry Griffin (Mission control flight Director, all Apollo missions). Amazing - especially seeing Mr. Cernan at the head of a classroom during a safety seminar in 2009, taking notes! As if the most experience astronaut to have ever lived, needed to take any, but there he was... most memorable quote from Gerry Griffin, who is a pilot, said to the delegates, "you; you determine the essence of your own airmanship". There has never been a statement to have so affected my own professional pilot career...
Gen. Engle was indeed a great test pilot. His time on the X-15 was amazing, and earned him his astronaut rating three time over. He was the first (and so far only) pilot to attain astronaut status prior to flying into Earth orbit (which Engle later did on two Space Shuttle missions. It was a great pleasure to interview Engle for my book, "The X-15 Rocket Plane," and he was also gracious enough to write the forward for the book.
+Michelle Evans Joe was a great man! there are alot of great men. you could have been one. but you decided to spend your time turning into a woman... how pathetic..
At 1:07 is a rear view of the early XLR-11 engines. As an historic NASA trivia point, the individual at centre in that frame was the late Warren North, head of NASA' s Aircraft Operations Division at the time; he sat on several atronaut selection panels in those days.
One of the twelve X-15 pilots moved to my home town in 1972 in Lebanon Ohio just down the road from where my family lived. It was amazing knowing an X-15 pilot lived just 2 miles from where I lived a a kid'. Whata' great guy, and he could drive a Maisie-Ferguson tractor reeeeal good too! Thanks for the ride Commander....sure gonna' miss ya'.
Nice story Amy...I'm old enough that I had the X-15 hanging from my bedroom ceiling as a kid growing up in Cocoa Beach in the 60's...I badly wanted to be a fighter pilot/astronaut...my pop worked out at The Cape as a radar guidance Engineer so I saw all the space race missile launches and used to see the astronauts around town in their Corvettes from time to time...turned out my eyesight wasn't good enough to be accepted into any of the military flight programs of the day so I ended up in Engineering college, which lead to a nice career at America's largest defense contactor of which I just retired.
Amy, correct me if I am wrong but, I think the reason Joe Engle didn't fly the Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo missions is at 6' he was too tall. I believe the height limit for the "capsule" astronauts was 5'8". They needed short guys to fit inside those things. I guess the shuttle had much more room.
My Neighbor who moved and went to work for JPL.. Met Joe Angle after his STS_2 flight and got his Autograph for me for Christmas...My Neighbor guy said he was very cool at that time. I keep in touch with my Neighbor guy when he visited his parents next door for the Holidays every year for about 15 years and got some coll stories from him. Also got a Bunch Of "NASA FACTS" monthly magazine for many years from him.
This episode was amaaazing!!!! And for the record, being that high, at the cusp of where the sky ends and the black of space begins, would freak me out. Even if I had the skills to fly, i don't think i could handle that...
A dozen or so years ago I was in Tucson and made a trip out to the Pima Air and Space Museum. They had the B-52 that carried and dropped the X-15's on Static display. I lived in Lancaster, California in the late 50's. I saw several of the X-15 flights. My father worked at Edwards and knew some of the flights that were scheduled. He wouldn't or couldn't tell us what was flying, but he would say things like "At noon, you might enjoy a walk in the yard". Seeing that B-52 sure felt like seeing an old friend.
How amazing are these guys. Back in the day when what they were doing was 'untested' as they were the testers! I can feel your awe about meeting and talking with him. I don't know what it is but in the Apollo 13 movie, which Ron Howard and team did so wonderfully, you see Mary Haise cry as the Rocket takes off - I understand why!
Great video, Amy. As a pilot who has had electrical failure at night (totally dark), and found his way back for a safe landing, I can say yes, I'd love the challenge of seeing the earth curve beneath me and get home by the skill of my hands.
The X-15 history is not over. I have a car with a Thiokol XLR-99 engine in it. The combustion chamber has been modified to save weight and increase performance. It is called Sonic Wind LSRV.
Amy Shira Teitel Aaah ok...I figured as much but thought I'd ask anyway. Very cool you being able to interview these early space pioneers. I enjoyed the article on PopSci. Thanks again.
A interesting flight of Columbia on STS 2. Worth a quick research. It seems Joe was hands on for most of the decent. They lost a fuel cell just hrs into the mission, cutting it short to just 2 days. Absolutely greased the landing. very nice Mr Engle. On one of those vids,,it seems they are either venting something during decent,,or it's the RCS getting tested down at lower altitudes. Something to look into maybe.
That is correct , Pete. One of Joe and Dick Truly's primary flight objectives, was a totally manual re-entry. They hand flew all the way to the ground.
Amy, am I going nuts, or does one of the photos of the X-15 pilots in this clip show all the pilots with their helmets on backwards? Enjoyed the clip and story BTW.
Perhaps you could direct your research kung-fu toward the abandoned 'Project 7969'. It was a reaction to Yuri Gagarin's flight. NACA officials were examining the concept of an Orbital X-15. One version would have the pilot bailing out before the re-entry damaged aircraft splashed down in the Gulf Of Mexico. Another version was to be big enough to seat two astronauts, and would make a runway landing.
That was the X-15B. It's in Amy's book, and also mentioned in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. It all went down the tubes when Eisenhower and Kennedy decided the manned program should be civilian and based on blunt-end capsules. The idea lived on, however, and reappeared as the Space Shuttle.
Thank you for another fascinating video! I've a question: How does the fuel get into a rocket's nozzle? Wouldn't it have to overcome the very impulse that the rocket is producing?
If I had sufficient training to fly that craft in both flight environments, I don't think I'd be worried about it. I would consider myself to one of the best in the world to be there. I grew up near Edwards and you find that this is the attitude of most that fly the kind of research vehicles that are flown there.
Thank you for your videos on the X-15. It's a rocket plane that still fascinates. We would have first gone into orbit with it but we cancelled the Dyna-Soar program not long after Sputnik was launched in favor of the man In space soonest Mercury program. If not, it would have been in effect like the Space Shuttle program, except running in the early 1960's and not early 80's.
Hey Amy how about a video on the space suits from Mercury through Apollo. Even go into what the Apollo space suits and a ladies undergarment have in common.
When I was about, oh 7 or so, they had an X-15 on display in Ft. Worth Tx. I made no bones about slipping under the ropes and putting my hands on the aircraft skin. I was quickly snatched out with a super-wedgey by my grand mother. And that, young lady, is my X-15 story.
Yes, that is correct. I went right up to the pilot's window, but it was too dark to see any detail inside. Quite a thrill to get that close to the X-15. @@stevansweeney
the x-15 was truly in its own class. such insane performance from aircraft that was developed before the use of computer aided design, back when real engineers hand-crafted airplanes. the only thing that has come close to the spirit of this rocket is , of course, spaceshipone and spaceshiptwo. hopefully, that will end up being a successful program. maybe you can talk about that program in the future? burt rutan is like a kelly johnson of the private sector.
The boundary line where space begins is open for debate. NASA sets it at 80 km but the international air and space institute or FAI uses the Karman Line at 100km. Named after physicist Theodore Von Karman, it's the altitude where the speed of a jet aircraft necessary to generate lift in the increasing thinning atmosphere would have to equal that of orbit velocity. But at 100 km there's still enough atmospheric drag to make that altitude less than optimal for satellites.
True...50 miles is the US govt defenition. But let's be honest...in an envrionmental / survivability viewpoint, there's not really a difference....If Engle had lost cabin and suit pressure when he broke 50 miles and Joe Walker had done the same when he broke 62 miles, they would've both been just as dead just as quickly.
280K feet is nowhere near enough to get into and maintain orbit, but at that height and with that plane, he would have been skimming the atmosphere at a speed where one bad move would either bounce him into higher altitude roller coaster dive, get into an uncontrollable spin due to the lack of friction on the control surfaces, or worse, end up tail forward right as his airspeed indicator began to climb back from zero. The danger really wasn't going too high, it was going too high so that the speed and attitude coming down wouldn't rip the entire airframe apart.
Steely eyed missile man.. Yes, he would be to busy to think about it. The X-15 would be very daunting as a pilot. Flown it in a simulator and it is a very very fast glider. So is the shuttle though. nothing but respect for these guys.
If you never have done piloting even in a single engine plane you may have these fears Once you got familiar in controlling an airplane you wont doubt your abilities. Amy, did you ever try to pilot an airplane?
No! The X-15 was so spectacular that they even made a HOLLYWOOD movie about it, not a documentary, a "docu-pic" I remember seeing it as a kid in the late 1960's just around the time the APOLLOs were finally flying up into space. I've NEVER seen it since but I'm sure it MUST still exist and is probably available via the internet to an intrepid young investigator. Goog luck "kids"! Please "POST" if you find it. Thank you in advance from a rapidly aging, "tail end" BABY BOOMER.
The "HEAVENS" appear to be endless in EVERY direction. However? Now we know better, eh? (Too long to go into in this format!) At least "ASTRONAUT" ENGEL could SEE out his window with a clear view of his surroundings. I've always thought how much MORE scary it is to be inside a deep diving submarine where the very environment you're in can CRUSH your vessel like a giant's malicious hand would a proportionately sized aluminum beverage can.
Go do a tandem skydive Amy..... You'll get an idea of what the mission mindset must require... "if at first you dont succeed, then skydiving and spaceflight probably isnt for you !
so he flew an airplane at the speed of sound thats cute. i can fly an airplane at the speed of light. i bet he didnt even land on the moon i could land on the sun.
Engle is the only human being to have flown two different types of winged vehicles in space, the X-15 and the Space Shuttle. He is the only astronaut to have manually flown the Shuttle through reentry and landing, In November 1981 he commanded the second flight of the Shuttle "Columbia", manually flying the re-entry from Mach 25 throughout the entire approach and landing - the first and only time that a winged aerospace vehicle was manually flown from orbit to a landing! What a great aviator he is. Thanks Amy for your great videos and channel.
When I was a child, I lived in Fullerton California. I remember being out on the playground one day and watching a plane very high in the sky and suddenly, a second contrail came from the same jet and flew faster and beyond the front of the first plane. I knew about the X-15 and I believe that is what I saw... the launch of an X-15 from the playground of my school. It would have been around 1967 when I was in 4th or 5th grade.
in my time in aviation safety management, I have met Jack Lousma (Skylab 3, STS-3), Steve Nagel (RIP), Eugene Cernan (Twice in 2009 and 2014, RIP), Gerry Griffin (Mission control flight Director, all Apollo missions). Amazing - especially seeing Mr. Cernan at the head of a classroom during a safety seminar in 2009, taking notes! As if the most experience astronaut to have ever lived, needed to take any, but there he was... most memorable quote from Gerry Griffin, who is a pilot, said to the delegates, "you; you determine the essence of your own airmanship". There has never been a statement to have so affected my own professional pilot career...
Gen. Engle was indeed a great test pilot. His time on the X-15 was amazing, and earned him his astronaut rating three time over. He was the first (and so far only) pilot to attain astronaut status prior to flying into Earth orbit (which Engle later did on two Space Shuttle missions. It was a great pleasure to interview Engle for my book, "The X-15 Rocket Plane," and he was also gracious enough to write the forward for the book.
+Michelle Evans Joe was a great man! there are alot of great men. you could have been one. but you decided to spend your time turning into a woman... how pathetic..
Loved your video as per usual. Given the X-15 was retired . Was its true potential ever reached. Could it have gone faster or even higher.
a trick: watch series on Flixzone. I've been using it for watching a lot of movies lately.
@Emmitt Sutton Definitely, been using Flixzone for since november myself :D
At 1:07 is a rear view of the early XLR-11 engines. As an historic NASA trivia point, the individual at centre in that frame was the late Warren North, head of NASA' s Aircraft Operations Division at the time; he sat on several atronaut selection panels in those days.
One of the twelve X-15 pilots moved to my home town in 1972 in Lebanon Ohio just down the road from where my family lived.
It was amazing knowing an X-15 pilot lived just 2 miles from where I lived a a kid'.
Whata' great guy, and he could drive a Maisie-Ferguson tractor reeeeal good too!
Thanks for the ride Commander....sure gonna' miss ya'.
And his name was Mr. Armstrong....Wonder how his aviation career went after that?
*****
Neil Armstrong was an X-15 pilot... was it him?
2:20 The technical threshold for space is 100Km = 62 miles - - but the atmospheric ceiling is more like 90 miles
Nice story Amy...I'm old enough that I had the X-15 hanging from my bedroom ceiling as a kid growing up in Cocoa Beach in the 60's...I badly wanted to be a fighter pilot/astronaut...my pop worked out at The Cape as a radar guidance Engineer so I saw all the space race missile launches and used to see the astronauts around town in their Corvettes from time to time...turned out my eyesight wasn't good enough to be accepted into any of the military flight programs of the day so I ended up in Engineering college, which lead to a nice career at America's largest defense contactor of which I just retired.
steve Fowler congratulations on your retirement. 🏆
I envy the environment you grew up in. I was 'stuck' in the Midwest, but did see the Apollo 17 launch and a shuttle landing at Edwards
Amy, correct me if I am wrong but, I think the reason Joe Engle didn't fly the Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo missions is at 6' he was too tall. I believe the height limit for the "capsule" astronauts was 5'8". They needed short guys to fit inside those things. I guess the shuttle had much more room.
Great episode Amy :-) How cool that you got to talk with him about his experiences. The whole X-15 program is fascinating.
but where's the interview video?
My Neighbor who moved and went to work for JPL.. Met Joe Angle after his STS_2 flight and got his Autograph for me for Christmas...My Neighbor guy said he was very cool at that time. I keep in touch with my Neighbor guy when he visited his parents next door for the Holidays every year for about 15 years and got some coll stories from him. Also got a Bunch Of "NASA FACTS" monthly magazine for many years from him.
Great story on the X-15! As a kid in the early 60s, I loved that plane. Wish I still had all the X-15 toys.
I'd fail so miserably! Literally in awe at the skill of some pilots.
This episode was amaaazing!!!! And for the record, being that high, at the cusp of where the sky ends and the black of space begins, would freak me out. Even if I had the skills to fly, i don't think i could handle that...
A dozen or so years ago I was in Tucson and made a trip out to the Pima Air and Space Museum. They had the B-52 that carried and dropped the X-15's on Static display. I lived in Lancaster, California in the late 50's. I saw several of the X-15 flights. My father worked at Edwards and knew some of the flights that were scheduled. He wouldn't or couldn't tell us what was flying, but he would say things like "At noon, you might enjoy a walk in the yard". Seeing that B-52 sure felt like seeing an old friend.
How amazing are these guys. Back in the day when what they were doing was 'untested' as they were the testers!
I can feel your awe about meeting and talking with him.
I don't know what it is but in the Apollo 13 movie, which Ron Howard and team did so wonderfully, you see Mary Haise cry as the Rocket takes off - I understand why!
+Murray Ball It really is a crime that that movie didn't win Best Picture. SO much better than Braveheart.
I am a big fan of Ron Howard, and others like him who do what they can to leave a lasting impression by creating something truly memorable.
Great video, Amy. As a pilot who has had electrical failure at night (totally dark), and found his way back for a safe landing, I can say yes, I'd love the challenge of seeing the earth curve beneath me and get home by the skill of my hands.
The X-15 history is not over. I have a car with a Thiokol XLR-99 engine in it. The combustion chamber has been modified to save weight and increase performance. It is called Sonic Wind LSRV.
Interesting video (as are your other "Vintage Space" videos...thanks!). Is there any chance of seeing the actual interview with Major General Engle?
I didn't actually video the interview. It was as informal a sit down and chat as it looks in that picture, me with a notebook on my knees!
Amy Shira Teitel Aaah ok...I figured as much but thought I'd ask anyway. Very cool you being able to interview these early space pioneers. I enjoyed the article on PopSci. Thanks again.
A interesting flight of Columbia on STS 2. Worth a quick research. It seems Joe was hands on for most of the decent. They lost a fuel cell just hrs into the mission, cutting it short to just 2 days. Absolutely greased the landing. very nice Mr Engle. On one of those vids,,it seems they are either venting something during decent,,or it's the RCS getting tested down at lower altitudes. Something to look into maybe.
Wasn't Engle the only STS pilot to manually land the Shuttle EVER? I think it was STS-2. Could be wrong about that...
Pete, that's right! I mentioned it in my article but didn't get it into the video.
That is correct , Pete. One of Joe and Dick Truly's primary flight objectives, was a totally manual re-entry. They hand flew all the way to the ground.
Heh, sounds like they modeled the character of Hawkins played by Tommy Lee Jones, from Space cowboys after him !
was this deliberate, choice of pilot, or was there a malfunction (unlikely)?
Amy, am I going nuts, or does one of the photos of the X-15 pilots in this clip show all the pilots with their helmets on backwards? Enjoyed the clip and story BTW.
So do you learn your script, or autocue it or got it written down on a piece of paper?
Perhaps you could direct your research kung-fu toward the abandoned 'Project 7969'. It was a reaction to Yuri Gagarin's flight.
NACA officials were examining the concept of an Orbital X-15. One version would have the pilot bailing out before the re-entry damaged aircraft splashed down in the Gulf Of Mexico. Another version was to be big enough to seat two astronauts, and would make a runway landing.
That was the X-15B. It's in Amy's book, and also mentioned in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. It all went down the tubes when Eisenhower and Kennedy decided the manned program should be civilian and based on blunt-end capsules. The idea lived on, however, and reappeared as the Space Shuttle.
...great job!
Thank you for another fascinating video! I've a question: How does the fuel get into a rocket's nozzle? Wouldn't it have to overcome the very impulse that the rocket is producing?
Great video! It brings up the human factor; something most videos about this subject do not.
He also almost got to walk on the Moon as LMP on Apollo 17 but got replaced by Jack Schmitt.
If I had sufficient training to fly that craft in both flight environments, I don't think I'd be worried about it. I would consider myself to one of the best in the world to be there. I grew up near Edwards and you find that this is the attitude of most that fly the kind of research vehicles that are flown there.
The personification of the right stuff.
Cool (if slightly terrifying) vid. Your knowledge and sincere enthusiasm ring loud and true.
Thank you for your videos on the X-15. It's a rocket plane that still fascinates. We would have first gone into orbit with it but we cancelled the Dyna-Soar program not long after Sputnik was launched in favor of the man In space soonest Mercury program. If not, it would have been in effect like the Space Shuttle program, except running in the early 1960's and not early 80's.
Amazing.
Hey Amy how about a video on the space suits from Mercury through Apollo. Even go into what the Apollo space suits and a ladies undergarment have in common.
When I was about, oh 7 or so, they had an X-15 on display in Ft. Worth Tx. I made no bones about slipping under the ropes and putting my hands on the aircraft skin. I was quickly snatched out with a super-wedgey by my grand mother. And that, young lady, is my X-15 story.
Ok that's an awesome X-15 story!
Up until a few years ago one could walk up to the X -15 at the air force museum and touch it.
Yes, that is correct. I went right up to the pilot's window, but it was too dark to see any detail inside. Quite a thrill to get that close to the X-15. @@stevansweeney
And Joe Engle is still the only person ever to land two different types of spacecraft on a runway...
And also the only person to stand up during a shuttle reentry.
Great post Amy, just one question: could the X15 really have orbited the earth ant re-entered the atmosphere and then land?
It never orbited the earth. It flew in a suborbital trajectory, meaning it went into space but was not going fast enough to orbit.
I'd love to fly an X-15. Or if they ever build a manned version of Skylon.
Interesting tidbit. He got bumped as a lunar astronaut so Harrison Schmidt could fly.
the x-15 was truly in its own class. such insane performance from aircraft that was developed before the use of computer aided design, back when real engineers hand-crafted airplanes.
the only thing that has come close to the spirit of this rocket is , of course, spaceshipone and spaceshiptwo. hopefully, that will end up being a successful program. maybe you can talk about that program in the future? burt rutan is like a kelly johnson of the private sector.
The boundary line where space begins is open for debate. NASA sets it at 80 km but the international air and space institute or FAI uses the Karman Line at 100km. Named after physicist Theodore Von Karman, it's the altitude where the speed of a jet aircraft necessary to generate lift in the increasing thinning atmosphere would have to equal that of orbit velocity. But at 100 km there's still enough atmospheric drag to make that altitude less than optimal for satellites.
Good to know. Thanks.
True...50 miles is the US govt defenition.
But let's be honest...in an envrionmental / survivability viewpoint, there's not really a difference....If Engle had lost cabin and suit pressure when he broke 50 miles and Joe Walker had done the same when he broke 62 miles, they would've both been just as dead just as quickly.
1 person is upset AST wouldn't interview him
As much as id love to meet any of the X-15 pilots, the pilot id most like to meet is Chuck Yeager. They all must have some incredible stories to tell.
I think I'd request a different tail number for my X-15 before takeoff ;)
How do you get a one armed stoner out of a tree?
-wave :D
280K feet is nowhere near enough to get into and maintain orbit, but at that height and with that plane, he would have been skimming the atmosphere at a speed where one bad move would either bounce him into higher altitude roller coaster dive, get into an uncontrollable spin due to the lack of friction on the control surfaces, or worse, end up tail forward right as his airspeed indicator began to climb back from zero. The danger really wasn't going too high, it was going too high so that the speed and attitude coming down wouldn't rip the entire airframe apart.
Steely eyed missile man.. Yes, he would be to busy to think about it. The X-15 would be very daunting as a pilot. Flown it in a simulator and it is a very very fast glider. So is the shuttle though. nothing but respect for these guys.
the X-15 pilots were crazy. :) I mean. Brave...but crazy
Not me buddy!
Easy peasy. I've flown the X15 lots of times... in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
While I'm certain you were absolutely professional in your interview, Amy, I'm willing to bet you got your fangirl on, didn't ya? ;-) :-p
Is saying she's gorgeous sexist, or simply pointless in its obviousness?
It's true, but it's like mentioning the sky is blue. We can see it.
Yes
I'm pretty sure I would loose my composure on every flight of the X-15.
shes pretty
+TheAtheistSwine Yeah, she is.
If you never have done piloting even in a single engine plane you may have these fears Once you got familiar in controlling an airplane you wont doubt your abilities.
Amy, did you ever try to pilot an airplane?
No! The X-15 was so spectacular that they even made a HOLLYWOOD movie about it, not a documentary, a "docu-pic" I remember seeing it as a kid in the late 1960's just around the time the APOLLOs were finally flying up into space. I've NEVER seen it since but I'm sure it MUST still exist and is probably available via the internet to an intrepid young investigator. Goog luck "kids"! Please "POST" if you find it. Thank you in advance from a rapidly aging, "tail end" BABY BOOMER.
The "HEAVENS" appear to be endless in EVERY direction. However? Now we know better, eh? (Too long to go into in this format!) At least "ASTRONAUT" ENGEL could SEE out his window with a clear view of his surroundings. I've always thought how much MORE scary it is to be inside a deep diving submarine where the very environment you're in can CRUSH your vessel like a giant's malicious hand would a proportionately sized aluminum beverage can.
Go do a tandem skydive Amy.....
You'll get an idea of what the mission mindset must require...
"if at first you dont succeed, then skydiving and spaceflight probably isnt for you !
Plus, he *rolled* the X-15 and got chewed out for it.
Honestly if I were to be stuck with her on a spaceship I would never go back to earth! Just saying :D
No
so he flew an airplane at the speed of sound thats cute. i can fly an airplane at the speed of light. i bet he didnt even land on the moon i could land on the sun.
Holy cow you are so attractive in this video.
feet, miles... kilometers anyone? no? ok.