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Lent by Langley Research Center
This aluminum model of an advanced configuration of the X-15 with Delta
wins was tested at subsonic, transonic and supersonic speeds during the
late 1960's. Some have suggested that the X-15 would have developed into
the first space plane had not been for the Soviet Union's successful
launch of Sputnik (Traveler or Companion) in 1957 and the subsequent
orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961. These events, and the space
race they precipitated, were the catalyst for a US shift away from
piloted aircraft and toward the more easily implemented placement of
humans atop missiles, the equivalent of gigantic bullets. Certainly
astronauts and cosmonauts-trained pilots themselves-would have had a
preference for controlling their own access to space rather than being
somewhat passive and, no doubt, apprehensive passengers atop very
volatile bullets.
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