For educational purposes
From the launching and retrieving of planes by dirigibles in the early 1900s to piggy-backing and today's space shuttle.
Piggybacking one plane on another is not an impossible ambition, as shown by the success of the Space Shuttle.
However this episode documents that the pursuit of this ambition has been long and challenging.
Nicknamed for their ability to hitch a ride, parasites represent enormous technological breakthroughs.
Used for everything from faster mail service to extra escorts, parasites have evolved.
Being able to ride on a mother craft extended these planes' potential.
In the beginning, Curtis fighters hid inside dirigibles. Later, parasite aircraft launched out of giant bombers to protect the plane.
Now, the space shuttle itself counts as a parasite.
Strange Planes offers a detailed history of these life-saving inventions.
From the launching and retrieving of planes by dirigibles in the early 1900s to piggy-backing and today's space shuttle.
Piggybacking one plane on another is not an impossible ambition, as shown by the success of the Space Shuttle.
However this episode documents that the pursuit of this ambition has been long and challenging.
Nicknamed for their ability to hitch a ride, parasites represent enormous technological breakthroughs.
Used for everything from faster mail service to extra escorts, parasites have evolved.
Being able to ride on a mother craft extended these planes' potential.
In the beginning, Curtis fighters hid inside dirigibles. Later, parasite aircraft launched out of giant bombers to protect the plane.
Now, the space shuttle itself counts as a parasite.
Strange Planes offers a detailed history of these life-saving inventions.
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00Thank you for listening.
01:36The first thing to do is to hoist the shuttle up the massive tower in what is its least dramatic method of getting off the ground.
01:44Very slowly and carefully, Enterprise is hauled into the air.
01:48With the shuttle ready, the 747 can be nosed into position.
02:05Mating the two giants has been meticulously planned, and the seemingly leisurely pace of activity masks the great care and precision involved.
02:13The 747 had been purchased second-hand from American Airlines and had then been flown to the Boeing plant, where it had been modified for its unique missions of ferrying the orbiters to and from various facilities and releasing the prototype for approach and landing tests.
02:36Enterprise is inched down onto the cradle braced into the fuselage of the carrier.
02:41The delicacy of the operation is disguised by the scale of the components.
03:05Edwards Air Force Base, site of NASA's Dryden Centre, has seen some very strange and exotic aircraft.
03:26However, the giant 747 with the shuttle mounted on its back must rank with the odder sight seen there.
03:33With the coupling successfully carried out, what remained was to get the configuration into the air, to prove that it would fly and to demonstrate that the testing and ferrying flights were feasible.
03:44At take-off in the test series, the assembly weighed in at 260 to 280 tonnes, relatively light for a 747.
04:13But the external load, with the consequent drag and turbulence, provided a completely different set of parameters for the Boeing's performance.
04:22The tail cone covering the area of the three engines on the orbiter had been specially designed and constructed by Boeing, to be fitted for ferrying and in all but two of the testing flights.
04:34The fitting was to neutralise the aerodynamic turbulence from the shuttle's blunt tail, which would cause undue vibration in the aft of the 747, simultaneously creating excess drag.
04:46With the bulk of the shuttle mounted on the back of the 747, the airflow to the normal tail fin was disrupted and the Boeing would have been uncontrollable without the addition of two vertical tail fins to the horizontal tail surfaces.
05:09These had to be strongly braced, as they would be subjected to enormous turbulence, particularly in the tests of the shuttle without the tail cone.
05:16The two fins restored adequate directional stability to the combination, as the pilots prepared for the shuttle's first free flight and the big Boeing nosed over for release.
05:279-0-5 and Enterprise, Houston is go for pushover.
05:339-0-5, how is it launch heading?
05:36Houston copies.
05:372-1, pushover.
05:40Houston copies, pushover.
05:422-1.
05:43With the combination in a shallow dive and picking up speed, the pilots on the orbiter readied for separation.
05:49Two lights.
05:50Okay, we armed.
05:51Two lights.
05:52And the orbit is go.
05:532-50.
05:54Houston is go for set.
05:55Have a great flight.
05:56And what's the end by for the bang, Gordo?
05:58Power.
05:59One, two, man.
06:04Okay, pitch up.
06:05We're up.
06:06Okay, I got a computer light.
06:08It's number two.
06:10Okay, we got a GPC light.
06:12Lots of sync on two.
06:13Pushing over.
06:14And a big X on computer number two.
06:16Roger, we understand.
06:18We're going to get a message?
06:22Yeah, that's a definite alert.
06:27Sideways alert, just like they said.
06:28Okay.
06:29Enterprise, you're clear to start to turn.
06:31Okay, Gordo's in the turn.
06:33It is really tight, Bo.
06:35In fact, I think it's a little better than the old STA field.
06:39Yeah.
06:40Got a steady auto land.
06:42900.
06:44Armed.
06:45Okay, we're armed and cleared.
06:47Standing by the gear.
06:52200 feet, 290.
06:53Okay, the gear is coming down at 270.
06:56Coming down.
06:57Mark.
06:59Gear coming.
07:00Stores open and they're all down.
07:01Coming down.
07:02Slip down here.
07:04Okay, three down.
07:05Gears down.
07:06240.
07:08230.
07:10220.
07:11Lots of space.
07:12Beautiful.
07:13210.
07:14210.
07:15210.
07:164 feet.
07:17200.
07:183 feet.
07:192 feet.
07:20195.
07:21185.
07:22You're on.
07:23You're on.
07:24Okay.
07:25Speed brakes.
07:26Speed brakes are coming.
07:27Speed brakes are halfway up.
07:29We'll see you, babe.
07:30Okay, I got 130 knots.
07:31Yay.
07:32That's great.
07:33120.
07:345 minutes and 21 seconds later, the flight was over.
07:35Okay, 80.
07:36Okay, 60 knots.
07:37Try the nose well.
07:38Okay.
07:39That was too good a glider.
07:40It had been intended to conduct a series of five flights with the cone on before a further
07:53two flights with the shuttle's blunt tail exposed.
07:56But after three extremely successful flights, it was decided to shorten the series and fly
08:01the shuttle without the cone immediately.
08:04The exposed rear of the shuttle presented real turbulence problems for the 747 pilots for
08:17the first time in the series.
08:19And the specially modified tail of the Boeing was buffeted and shaken, as here on the second
08:25cone-less flight, the last of the glide and landing test series.
08:29230 knots.
08:30Stand by for launch ready, Joe.
08:32Set.
08:33Okay.
08:34Body pack set.
08:35Yeah.
08:36Okay.
08:37Pushing over.
08:38Okay.
08:39Okay, Joe, we're configured.
08:40Beautiful.
08:41180 knots.
08:42Over the gear.
08:43Okay.
08:44Get the gear.
08:45Gear's coming.
08:46Okay, 200 feet, Joe.
08:47265.
08:48Despite a small miscalculation from the pilot, which meant that the landing was a bit bumpy,
09:01touchdown was made safely, and the series was closed.
09:02Bumpy, touchdown was made safely, and the series was closed.
09:06Now, the shuttle program could move on to its greater task.
09:07To conduct its series of space missions.
09:08The shuttle program could move on to its greater task, to conduct its series of space
09:12missions.
09:13It had originally been planned that the shuttle would be a combination plane, parasitic on
09:18its larger carrier until release from the atmosphere, with the other part returning
09:19to land.
09:20to land.
09:21Many concepts, based on this study, could move on to land.
09:22Many concepts, based on this study, would be a combination plane, parasitic on its larger
09:27carrier until release from the atmosphere, with the other part returning to land.
09:35Many concepts, based on this specification, had been delivered, and though they should have
09:40proved cheaper to operate than the large rockets that are used in their stead, the thought of
09:42the development costs associated with such a project was enough to ensure the idea was
09:44short-lived.
09:45Certainly, the shuttle development, itself, was a long and expensive business, and the development
09:47of a bigger twin for it may have caused the demise of the whole program.
09:58In being born as a planned study, the geeks of the urban city built a sp pinned on a ship
10:05and a capital eleme by the fuerza outilist Lord of God inä»–çš„ shade of the energyificial
10:08blend in the shuttle development itself was a long and expensive business and the development
10:11of a bigger twin for it may have caused the demise of the whole program.
10:14In being born as a parasite concept, the Shuttle reflected a design objective that has a history going back to the earliest years of aviation.
10:23It could perhaps still be described as having a parasitic relationship with its huge unpiloted rocket engines and propellant tank.
10:44Roger all.
10:48May get a status final.
10:49Go.
10:50Booster. Go.
10:51GNC. Go.
10:52Eagle. Go.
10:53Go at 40, Capcom.
10:54Columbia, Houston, you're going 40.
11:14In the era of the great airships, there were several examples where large rigids were designed to carry aeroplanes.
11:24With their immense size and lifting power, the airships could provide internal spaces so that not only could they launch aircraft, they could also land them and service, refuel and re-dispatch them.
11:35The outstanding examples were the US Navy's Akron and Macon.
11:48785 feet long and capable of 75 miles per hour, they combined the reconnaissance capabilities of earlier airships with the fact that they were also aircraft carriers.
11:59They had hangers in their bellies for five Curtis fighters, which were launched and retrieved in mid-air by means of a trapeze lowered through the hull.
12:09With a load carrying capability over 160,000 pounds, the Akron and Macon were not stretched by having to cope with the needs of the little planes, and thousands of successful flights were made from the two giants.
12:22Even today, when new proposals for airships are mooted, this plane carrying ability is one of the virtues of the giants that is recalled, and there are undoubtedly some applications to which such craft could be put.
12:39Back in the heyday of the airship, it was probably inevitable that attempts would be made to use them as aircraft carriers.
12:58Though the British, Germans and others used the idea to varying extents, and with varying success, it was the Akron and Macon which carried the idea to its most advanced manifestation.
13:13The fragility that the Akron displayed on this occasion was an indication of one of the reasons for their passing from the skies.
13:22But at the time, airships had a major advantage over aeroplanes, in that they could travel over very long distances, and were capable of regular transatlantic flights.
13:31Schemes to deploy planes from other planes had been limited to examples like this early thirties Russian experiment to launch fighters from the big TB-3 bomber.
13:47Of course, there was no way that the big plane could practically retrieve them after take-off.
13:52But the primary aim of this and other similar military experiments was to conserve the fuel of the small plane until it was needed.
14:07This was also partially the intent with the British company Short Brothers' Mayo Composite Aircraft, the brainchild of Imperial Airways Technical Chief Major R.H. Mayo.
14:17This involved mounting a small, four-engined seaplane onto a sea-class flying boat, using the bigger plane's fuel and engine power to lift the actual payload-carrying seaplane into the air.
14:30Once aloft, the two components separated, the flying boat returning to base, while the upper plane, loaded to a weight which would have precluded a take-off under its power alone, continued on its transatlantic journey.
14:42The planes involved in the trials of this idea, named Maya and Mercury, made their first actual separation on the 6th of February 1938.
14:54In July, the Mayo combination succeeded in sending off the Mercury on its first transatlantic crossing.
15:00But the idea was never pushed much further than an experimental stage, though it had undoubtedly posed one successful solution to the problem of long-range flight.
15:09It was to a more sinister purpose that German wartime designers evolved a similar configuration, using the Junkers Ju-88 twin-engine bomber and the Messerschmitt Me 109 fighter.
15:30This was given the combination name, the combination name, or mistletoe.
15:37Both of these planes had served their masters well, and were readily available.
15:41For example, over 30,000 109s had been produced.
15:45With the mistletoe composite, the nose of the Junkers became a large explosive charge.
15:52With the engines of both planes providing power, the pilot, sitting in the fighter, would fly the combination to the target, and then set the bomber, or more exactly the bomb, to glide to a spectacular and destructive end.
16:06Mistletoe combinations were used against the Allied Normandy landings without much effect, but their successful deployment encouraged the Germans to build more.
16:16Only 15 of the original Me 109 combinations were used, but over 250 using FW 190s were constructed and used in the later stages of the war.
16:27A number of minor successes were attributed to them, but given the straits that the Reich was in by that time, the fighters could have undoubtedly been better utilised in their more normal role.
16:39It had been these two fighters that had been the rock upon which the Western Allies' strategic bombing had almost broken.
16:50Their strong and sustained defence had seen losses in the Allies' bomber fleets reach unsustainable proportions.
16:57And it had only been the development of the long-range escort fighter, in particular the Mustang, that had seen the tide of the air war slowly turned against the Germans.
17:09The attrition wrought on the Luftwaffe, particularly in terms of pilots, had meant that the bombers had enjoyed relative immunity from fighter attack.
17:26Though the by then outnumbered German planes had still managed to courageously attack the massed formations into the teeth of the defending escorts.
17:35Given the Luftwaffe's practice of trying to avoid or ignore the fighters while attacking the bombers, they were almost easy prey for the Allied fighter pilots.
17:44And the bombers came to be in much greater danger from the German anti-aircraft artillery than the attacking planes.
17:50.
17:52.
17:57.
18:31Too late and too few to stem the tide of the war, the Germans eventually deployed the stunning new force of the jet-powered Me262.
18:51They were to have limited overall effect on the conflict, but their ramifications clearly spelt the demise of the theory of strategic bombing, at least using piston-engined planes.
19:03The speed of the new jets meant that they were able to simply elude the fighters and get on with the creation of havoc in the bomber formations,
19:12while the heavy demand for fuel of the early jet engines meant that the Allies could not deploy a long-range jet escort against them.
19:20It could be a half-stablet ship.
19:50The British had actually commenced mass production of their Meteor before the German commitment
20:07to the ME 262, and in trials with American B-29s, the message about the jet's impact
20:14was reinforced.
20:16Clearly, long-range operations by piston-engined planes were not possible against the defending
20:21force of jets, and in the absence of escorting jets, all theories of long-range operations
20:28were no longer valid.
20:30To commence such a campaign would be to set up a turkey shoot for the jet fighter pilots
20:34against both the long-range bombers and their piston-engined escorts should they care to
20:39become involved.
20:46To add urgency to the problem was the knowledge that the Russians, who by now were being identified
21:11as the strategic target of the future, were already deploying their first jet fighters.
21:17Clearly something had to be done, and what seemed obvious was that if the escorting jets
21:21could not carry enough fuel, then the bombers should carry the fighters themselves.
21:27The tricky bit would be that they would also have to carry them back, and landing a winged
21:31plane onto another was till then strictly the realm of the barnstormer and stuntman.
21:46The McDonnell Company were given the job of developing the proposed fighter, and they came up with
21:51the XF-85, known as the Goblin, but widely referred to as the Bug.
21:57It was designed as a partner for the giant B-36 bombers then being developed, and was to
22:02be deployed from the bomb bay of the mother ship.
22:05Essentially, the XF-85 consisted of a jet engine with the pilot sitting astride it.
22:12The rest of the plane was occupied by fuel, except for the gun installations.
22:17The bomb bay was 16 foot long, so the plane was designed to be 15 foot long.
22:22Its 21 foot span reduced to only 5 foot 5 inches when the swept wings were folded up.
22:28And even in that position, the plane was only 10 foot high.
22:33Instead of landing wheels, there was a retractable hook for the trapeze of the carrier plane,
22:38and the tail span was reduced by dividing the tail into 6 odd shaped surfaces.
22:44The engine was a 3,000 pound thrust Westinghouse, and the plane carried around 30 minutes of fuel.
22:58It was supposed to have a top speed of 664 miles per hour, but was never to approach that mark in practice.
23:17It weighed only 4,550 pounds fully loaded, carrying 130 gallons of fuel.
23:24On the 23rd of August 1948, the Goblin flew for the first time.
23:41As the new B-36s were only just coming off the production line,
23:45the test series was to be conducted with a B-29 acting as the mother ship.
23:50The B-29 was unable to fully retract the Goblin,
23:53and apart from this aspect, the compromise arrangement was much the same as it would have been with the new bomber.
24:00Hoisted into the bomb bay from a specially dug pit,
24:03the Goblin protruded below the carrier as they taxied to take off.
24:23With the trapeze restraints on the nose released, the Goblin swung gently for a few moments, then dropped into free flight.
24:35With the trapeze restraints on the nose released, the Goblin swung gently for a few moments, then dropped into free flight.
24:42If one looks logically at what was being done here, it's not hard to see that falling off the bomber
24:49was going to be a lot easier than creeping up into its turbulence to hook back onto the trapeze.
24:56This is not only going to be a difficult operation to perform, it's going to be a very dangerous one.
25:03Having failed on his gingerly first attempt, the pilot, Edwin Schock, then tried a more highly powered
25:10attempt to take off the bomber.
25:11The pilot, Edwin Schock, then tried a more highly powered approach.
25:27With almost fatal efforts, the pilot, Edwin Schock, then tried a more highly powered approach.
25:33with almost fatal results as he crashed violently into the trapeze and plummeted away out of control
25:54with the canopy smashed shock made an emergency landing on the plane skid
26:03he had been lucky to escape from the incident and the plane was carted away to be fixed
26:18in October the trials resumed once again with the B-29 as the mothership
26:33the pilot of the XF-85 was in constant contact with the operator of the trapeze in the carrier plane
26:48the pilot of the XF-85 was in constant contact with the operator of the trapeze in the carrier plane
26:58once again the little plane was lowered and the pilot started his engine and set his flaps for takeoff
27:04with the nose stabilizer raised the pilot had only to slowly advance the throttle to first neutralize the drag on the bomber and then take control of his mount
27:19with the nose stabilizer raised the pilot had only to slowly advance the throttle to first neutralize the drag on the bomber and then take control of his mount
27:30the stability and control characteristics of the XF-85 have been described as entirely unsatisfactory and considering that they were only ever flown by an extremely experienced and wily test pilot it's certainly a good thing that they were never produced in large numbers
27:57for use by men of lesser expertise
28:11the business of rejoining the mothership remained as we described it earlier difficult and dangerous
28:17the test pilot Edwin shock who flew the goblin in its trials never managed to get the little plane above a speed of 362 miles per hour
28:31and the two goblins accumulated a total flying time of only two hours and 19 minutes between them
28:38McDonald's design team proposed a more conventional plane as an extension of the idea but this was never proceeded with
28:45that there were successful dockings and no fatal accidents is a tribute to the pilot involved but only two XF-85s were built and they passed deservingly into history
29:09they had been an extreme design demand and were really always only theoretically possible with the knowledge and technology available
29:16the fact that a plane was created that could actually perform the task at all is pretty astounding in itself
29:23with this experience behind them the Air Force now had a pretty good idea of what it was up against and the idea of a tiny specially designed
29:37inboard plane was abandoned the next time the idea surfaced the plane was basically a standard F-84 coupled as much as was possible and the procedures had been rationalized
29:47over the course of the project the trapeze on the bomber and the hooking contraptions on the RF-84 were to go through various mutations in sorting out a workable proposition
30:02The mother ships were GR B-36 bombers but the purpose of the arrangement was reconnaissance
30:09The system would allow for the jets to be carried long distances sent in for high speed missions over targets where the B-36 would have been a sitting duck
30:17and then retrieved
30:19It could be refueled by the B-36 and sent on another mission if such were needed
30:36In the early trials even separating could be difficult but the efforts of those working on the scheme were to be repaid
30:43The process, called FICON for fighter conveyance, was actually adopted and 25 RF-84s were operationally linked with 10 adapted B-36 motherships
30:54This was to be abandoned after only a year
31:00A takeoff like this was rare
31:03More commonly the planes would link up once they had both taken off individually
31:07This was done as carrying the RF-84 at takeoff the B-36 could not retract its wheels
31:13The fighters wings were in the way
31:30Once again the little planes pilot was in constant contact with the trapeze operator inside the carrier
31:36Upon whose care and attention so much depended
31:39Adding the 1100 mile radius of action of the RF-84 to the potential 2800 mile ferrying trip
31:49Made the concept very attractive
31:51But the practical difficulties of the task made its permanent adoption into USAF practice improbable from the start
31:58So when the plane employees were able to take off the model from the start
32:00this was 1.5-800 mile ferrying trip
32:01anddag puts a few hours would build a dip from the route
32:02Which was he was able to get to that?
32:03It was very loyal to the airport
32:04This was early in front one company
32:05The pilot car was here
32:06The pilot car was raised in the direction of the gateway
32:07What was a wonderful position
32:08This was a beautiful car to the road
32:10And this was a beautiful village
32:11The pilot car was uniquement
32:12The pilot car was filled since the days
32:13The pilot car was found in the back
32:15And this was a beautiful thing
32:16The pilot car was moving could be able to the cockpit
32:17The pilot car was removed from the Sadly
32:18The pilot car was not even enough
32:19The pilot car was an automated car
32:20The pilot was an overhead
32:21He was in the back
32:22But the pilot car was that took the vehicle
32:28The idea of the operational parasite, though cumbersome, had posed very particular demands
32:41upon the designers of the systems.
32:44And particularly with Ficon, the response had been surprisingly successful.
32:48McDonald's Goblin had been perhaps an overly ambitious project, but even so, they had performed
32:54a minor miracle in getting as far as they had.
32:57New advances had made the roles of systems like the Goblin and Ficon redundant.
33:02The jet age had grown rapidly, and the limitations of the early engines had largely been overcome.
33:08In addition, advances in electronic countermeasures and suppression were making long-range bombing
33:13operations relatively feasible again.
33:18Ficon's reconnaissance roles, and the implicit tactical nuclear weapons delivery the system
33:27could have allowed, went to new planes designed specifically to cope with the demands.
33:33And the job of protecting the intrusion of the giant B-52 over hostile airspace went to tiny
33:38quail drones.
33:40Simply described, these were midget aircraft packed with electronic trickery which were
33:45dropped away from the mothership to delude and distract the enemy's weapons.
33:49The things emitted larger recognition symbols than a host of B-52s, and would thoroughly outwit
33:55the electronic tracking and targeting systems of air-to-air missiles fired against the bombers.
34:01A single quail would look to a radar operator like a fleet of incoming bombers, and totally
34:20overwhelm the less sophisticated guidance of a missile.
34:23Theoretically at least, and probably in practice, the quail made long-range intrusion into hostile
34:29airspace achievable again.
34:31The B-36s never got to carry goblins or F-84s into action.
34:36The operational cartage the big bombers were given was in carrying the prototype B-58 Hustler
34:41to Murok for testing.
34:45The Hustler, the first supersonic bomber, reflected the leaps forward in development that had seen
34:50the parasites made redundant.
34:55The designers were effectively saved from having to try and develop further systems that
34:59involved the ability to launch and retrieve parasites.
35:03However, though they were relieved of that cumbersome and demanding specification, there
35:09was another group of parasite planes which achieved outstanding results for the engineers
35:14as they gnawed away at the limits on practical flight.
35:18Once again it was the Murok base that saw these planes in operation.
35:22They were the X-planes that were in a sequence of dramatic test series to smash the barriers
35:27on speed and make the names of their pilots into household names.
35:38First was the bullet-like X-1, whose shape reflected the fact that bullets did fly faster
35:43than sound when very little else about the sound barrier was known.
35:48The engineers approaching Mach 1 had encountered problems of compressibility that had torn them
35:52apart in mid-air.
35:54And there were many who believed that the sound barrier was an absolute limit on the potential
35:58speed that could be attained.
36:01On October the 14th 1947, on this historic flight, Chuck Yeager became the first man to
36:06fly through the supposed sound barrier.
36:10The design team leader, Robert Woods, though favouring a jet, had been forced by the limitations
36:15on the availability, reliability and power of the jets of the day to settle on a rocket-powered
36:20plane.
36:21And the limitations of the available rockets had further decreed that the plane would not
36:25be able to carry sufficient fuel to take off normally and still be able to carry out the
36:30mission.
36:31It had, therefore, to be air-launched from a mother plane.
36:37The congratulations due to Yeager should also be given to Woods and the designers.
36:44Where the X-1 had been absolutely flat out at 1.45 times the speed of sound, as Chuck Yeager
36:50had demonstrated, the next of the X-planes, the X-1A, was developed to fly past Mach 2, the
36:57next logical step in investigating various aspects of ultra-high speed flight.
37:09On this flight, on December the 12th 1953, Yeager first took the X-1A past Mach 2, then
37:17pressed on, achieving almost two and a half times the speed of sound before encountering
37:22the phenomenon known as inertia coupling and losing control of the plane.
37:27As you will see, the plane's behaviour became violently disrupted and Yeager, semi-conscious
37:32after being thrown about the cockpit, was lucky to regain control eventually and bring
37:37the plane safely back to land.
37:39And, according to the X-1A, it was wonderful to be able to get it.
37:41And, according to the X-1A, we have a huge number of Musilatons, rivalry and
37:44even with the X-1A, we have to extend the plane to die and get it.
37:44And, according to the X-1A, we have to get it.
37:45And, according to the X-1A, we have to rise and get it.
37:46The X-1A. We have to raise up the C-1, but the X-1A of the X-1A.
37:48THE END
38:18THE END
38:48THE END
38:50THE END
38:52THE END
38:54THE END
38:56WHEN THE PROBLEM HAD BEEN ENCOUNTERED, HE'D BEEN TRAVELING AT 1,612 MPH.
39:00AND AFTER STUDYING ANALYSIS OF WHAT HAD HAPPENED, THE AIR FORCE IMPOSED AN EMBARGO ON FURTHER X1A FLIGHTS OVER MAC 2, CONCENTRATING INSTEAD ON RESEARCH INTO HIGH-ALTITUDE FLIGHT.
39:12THE END
39:14THE END
39:16THE END
39:18THE END
39:20THE END
39:22THE END
39:24THE END
39:26THE END
39:28THE END
39:30THE END
39:32THE END
39:34THE END
39:36THE END
39:38THE END
39:40THE END
39:42THE END
39:44DEVELOPED FROM THE X1A, THE X2 WAS DESIGNED TO EXPLORE FLIGHT AT SPEEDS AND ALTITUDES FAR BEYOND THOSE ACHIEVABLE WITH THE EARLIER PLANE.
39:54IT FLEW ONLY TWENTY TIMES, BUT IT SET SEVERAL NOTABLE MARKS IN A CAREER THAT WAS MARRED BY ACCIDENTS, INSTABILITY AND EVENTUALLY FATALITY.
40:03HERE ON THE 23RD OF JULY 1956, COLONEL FRANK EVEREST SETS OUT ON A TEST THAT WAS TO SET A NEW SPEED RECORD, 2.85 TIMES THE SPEED OF SOUND.
40:15THIS WAS A LEVEL ONLY BETTERED BY THE PLANE ONCE ON ITS LAST FLIGHT TWO MONTHS LATER.
40:21THEN, IN SUCCEEDING IN PASSING MAC 3, INERTIA COUPLING SENT THE X2 OUT OF CONTROL AT 2,094 MILES PER HOUR.
40:30THE PLANE WAS DESTROYED AND THE PILOT, MILBURN APT, KILLED.
40:35COLONEL EVEREST, SEEN HERE, FLEW THE X2 ON 13 FLIGHTS.
40:40THIS WAS THE LAST OF THOSE, BEFORE TRANSFERRING TO OTHER WORK.
40:44THE LAST OF THOSE, BEFORE TRANSFERRING TO OTHER WORK.
40:47THE LAST OF THOSE, BEFORE TRANSFERRING TO OTHER WORK.
40:51THE LAST OF THOSE, BEFORE TRANSFERRING TO OTHER WORK.
40:58THE LAST OF THOSE, BEFORE TRANSFERRING TO OTHER WORK.
41:05A B42 should've filled the name of this
41:22instead of live a little overt from air when-swain was one of the lucky heroes
41:26the X2 also set a new altitude record, which was to stand for four years,
41:33125,907 feet. Now this is definitely somewhere in the realm where the distinction between an
41:41aeroplane and a spacecraft gets a bit artificial. When that record was broken, however, it was by
41:47a plane that would push it out eventually to 354,200 feet, the X-15.
42:03The North American company's plane was designed to explore the identifiable problems of space and
42:12atmospheric flight at very high speeds. The tentative goals were speeds of max 6.6 or
42:18greater and altitudes in excess of 250,000 feet. On this flight, on July 17, 1962, Robert
42:28White flies the plane to 314,500 feet, becoming in the process the first X-15 pilot to be awarded
42:36astronauts' wings.
42:58At that height, as the film from White's plane shows, the curvature of the Earth is pretty
43:07clear.
43:12The X-15's flights were a series of outstanding successes. To list all the achievements made
43:29by the plane in terms of technological advances and so on would be progressively both more
43:34astounding and confusing. For the designers, these X-planes represent the ultimate challenges,
43:40but also provide the most reward. Here, testing the limits of a time's knowledge into the realm
43:46of theory, the next day's certainties are established. Upon those, of course, the minds
43:52of science will deduce the next theory, and so on.
43:57Only 199 of the planned 200 flights were flown. Ironically, in the desert, the last flight was
44:03cancelled because of a snowstorm. The X-15 could accelerate not only to great height, but of course
44:10to great speed. Eventually, with external tanks to set it on its way to a mark of 4,520 miles
44:18per hour, set in March 1967.
44:25more than 1 a.50 miles per hour, set in March samma Schleyman.
44:27more than 1 a.50 miles per hour.
44:30Let's see.
44:31,
44:32,
44:34,
44:36,
44:38,
44:42,
44:43,
44:48The X-15 series more than rewarded its contributors.
45:04The three examples built exceeded the goals set,
45:07and in the long term, the wealth of information they provided
45:10is a legacy that can still be seen
45:12in the many contributions it made to the aerospace programs.
45:16The X-parasites had a symbiotic relationship with science overall.
45:32The next program of Strange Planes looks at the history
45:35of aerial reconnaissance and surveillance,
45:37from string and bag to satellite, eyes in the sky.
45:46.
45:48.
45:53.
45:55.
46:00.