The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight)

I am an aviation enthusiast with extensive work and research in the field. This book is excellent. It is full of personal stories and information about the program that you will not find elsewhere. It tells the story of the airplane with background and issues. Won’t be lending this book out. Extremely happy with this purchase.

It’s a very informative, very detailed look at the entire program. Lots of concentration on the background of the program and the engineering involved.

I am disappointed that Amazon has deleted all comments to ratings. There was a good dialogue about issues raised in these ratings, and deleting that from the record, I believe, is harmful to the process. One perfect example of this is when another reviewer stated that the author had misused the word "penultimate" in the text of the book, I was able to respond and clarify that this was not the case. Because of that, I will re-post my response as a stand-alone review, which I had hoped not to have to do. Below is my original response:Thank you for your comments about my book. I did want to mention that the word penultimate was used three times at various places in the book, and each time was correct. Since I'm not sure which of the three cases you are referring to, I'll mention each. Please let me know if there is something I have missed.1. In chapter 3, I wrote that on Robert White's penultimate flight (next to last flight), he attained his ultimate altitude (his highest altitude).2. In chapter 9 I was talking about the penultimate action sequence (next to last action sequence) in the movie "X-15” starring Charles Bronson.3. In chapter 12, which is primarily about pilot Bill Dana, I wrote that Bill flew the longest X-15 flight at 299.8 miles, and nine months later Pete Knight, on the penultimate X-15 flight (next to last X-15 flight on 13 September 1968) tied Bill's record for longest flight. After Pete tied that record, Bill then flew the final (and thus ultimate) X-15 flight on 24 October 1968.As for Pete's position on Prop 22, it came out of hatred for his brother and his own son, which I felt was not a viable position. And it was not just a position, since Pete is the one who initiated that Proposition for the 2000 California ballot. As for Prop 8, it was Pete's second wife who took a position on that since Pete had died more than 4 years prior to it going on the ballot in 2008.

I can't say enough good things about Michelle Evans' "The X-15 Rocket Plane." As a retired aerospace engineer with 30+ years of experience in rocketry and spacecraft development, and with a personal technical library numbering hundreds of volumes, I enthusiastically report that Ms. Evans' treatment of arguably the most significant experimental aircraft program ever is nothing short of remarkable. I've read 'em all, and this is by far the best book of its kind I've read in many years, if not ever.In my opinion as an ardent historian of aviation and spaceflight technology and operations, "The X-15 Rocket Plane" is outstanding against every criterion by which one could choose to measure it. For example, it is exceptionally readable. The text flows with seemingly effortless ease, even when Ms. Evans describes obscure technical concepts that the reader must understand in order to appreciate what the X-15 accomplished. This is by no means a dry, esoteric treatise. Words and phrases practically leap off the page and truly bring the X-15 program and its participants to life. Did I mention that it is extremely well written?It is also exceptionally well organized. Ms. Evans covers the X-15 program in detail by focusing on the Air Force, Navy and NASA test pilots who flew the aircraft. The reader learns a little about the background of each pilot, then a lot about the specific missions each one flew, and then a little about his post-X-15 career. It's an interesting and effective organizational approach that is not a strict chronology of events, but rather jumps around in time depending on when each pilot served in the program. But the technique works great. Even better, Ms. Evans draws on her extensive, in-depth interviews with program managers, ground crewmen, chase plane pilots, engineers, technicians and other people involved in the program at all levels. She thus provides the broadest, most well-rounded and humanized treatment of the X-15 aircraft and its flight test program that I've ever read.Even better again, "The X-15 Rocket Plane" is technically, operationally and historically correct and scrupulously accurate. I'm a real stickler--some might say "anal"--for accuracy in books about aerospace subjects. Factual errors, historical misrepresentations and incorrect explanations of aviation and spaceflight science and technology drive me crazy. I can only say that Ms. Evans gets it right--virtually always. I found only a few times where her wording was not exactly how someone working in the field might have described something. But in almost all cases, she writes as though she were personally in the cockpit, in the control center and in the engineering offices. She captures not only the scope and essence, but also the intimate, minute details, of X-15 flight test operations in a way that I have not seen equaled in any other book on the subject.I hope my enthusiasm and high regard for "The X-15 Rocket Plane" and its author come through clearly in this review. Simply stated, it is a uniquely fantastic book. I recommend it as highly as possible to any reader interested in the subject.

Other books are more technical but this one. covers more of the human story. Therefore to anyone who has a previous release of the next 15 book this is a very complimentary addition.

What a fantastic story. Anything was possible back then!!

The book was a good record of the X15 program but it concentrated more on the people than on the Hardware. It was very short of illusrtations and diagrams.

A really good review of the X-15 programme from a very personal perspective. The best of this series I have read so far.

Just an excellent book on the X-15. It is filled with interviews the author had with the X-15 pilots over the years. So many of these pilots have now passed. It is a great piece of X-15 writing.