Test pilot Joe Walker pushed the X-15 rocket research aircraft to the fastest speed ever reached in an X-15: 4,104 mph, or Mach 5.92.
Image: Courtesy of NASA 1963: Test pilot Joe Walker takes an X-15 aircraft to an altitude of 67 miles (106 kilometers), becoming the only pilot to surpass the 100-kilometer barrier in a rocket plane until Mike Melvill, piloting SpaceShipOne, duplicates the feat in 2004.
Walker, who flew P-38 Lightnings during World War II, became a test pilot in the early '50s and gained experience in a variety of research aircraft, including the Bell X-1, X-5 and Douglas X-3, which he said was the worst plane he ever flew. But he made his name flying North American Aviation's X-15.
Walker made his first X-15 flight in 1960 and was completely surprised by the plane's power, hollering, "Oh my God!" as the afterburners kicked in (and eliciting a joking, "Yes? You called?" from a ground controller). But he would go on to make 24 flights in the X-15, including the memorable July 19 ascent, known as Flight 90.
Breaking the 100-kilometer barrier also meant penetrating the threshold of space, so the flight qualified Walker as an astronaut. When he repeated the feat a month later, he became the first person to enter space twice.
Walker also recorded the fastest speed ever reached in an X-15: On June 27, 1962, he hit 4,104 mph, or Mach 5.92.
Walker was killed in 1966 when the F-104 Starfighter he was piloting collided with a prototype XB-70 Valkyrie high-level bomber while flying in tight formation above Barstow, California.
(Source: NASA.gov)
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