The X-15 was the last in a line of manned rocket-powered research airplanes built during the 1950s to explore ever-faster and higher flight regimes. Nineteen years before Space Shuttle, the X-15 showed it was possible to fly into, and out of, space. Launched from the wing of a modified B-52 bomber, the ship rocketed higher and faster than any manned aircraft of the time. There had never been anything like the X-15; it had a million-horsepower engine and could fly twice as fast as a rifle bullet. In the joint X-15 hypersonic research program that NASA conducted with the Air Force, the Navy, and North American Aviation the aircraft flew over a period of nearly 10 years and set unofficial speed and altitude records, in a program to investigate all aspects of piloted hypersonic flight. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo piloted spaceflight programs as well as the Space Shuttle program.
It's June 1942 and the world's fate is about to be decided by a handful of pilots and their untested...
LIVING IN THE AGE OF AIRPLANES offers a fresh perspective on a modern-day miracle that many of us ta...
The iconic design of the Boeing 747 has endured for over 5 decades, but the end of production is loo...
Richthofen goes off to war like thousands of other men. As fighter pilots, they become cult heroes f...
A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the...
As the Space Race ensues, seven pilots set off on a path to become the first American astronauts to ...
All of the necessary technologies required to reach the Moon was first tested during Project Gemini,...
Cold War Peacemaker is the amazing and unique story of the development of the B-36 very-long-long-ra...
This 2004 documentary by Werner Herzog diaries the struggle of a passionate English inventor to desi...
The story of the Wright Brothers and their efforts to invent, build, and fly the world's first succe...
After 10 years of tests and 12 billion Euros invested, the state-of-the-art Airbus jet completed its...
Charles Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his 1927 New York to Pa...
On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing to...
For the first time in 40 years African skies resound to the roar of a flying boat. Alexander Frater ...
Follows the development of Canadair's super-executive jet. A totally new type of aircraft, it is fas...
Documentary about the development of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The 747 was a game changer, the airli...
Bob Hoover tells his own story and shares, with his trademark charm, the hard earned wisdom of a lif...
Discover what makes Air Force One faster, more secure, more comfortable, and more capable than any o...