Research Project X-15 - Hypersonic Research Aircraft, NASA, 1960s, HD Remaster

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  • Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
  • Restored NASA documentary from the 1960s about the X-15 research aircraft. Footage from several historical flights is shown, along with crews and hardware.
    The video was remasted to improve color balance and stability. AI upscale (Topaz AI) was used to resample the video to full HD resolution. While it works in most cases, some artifacts are present in some sequences.
    Sound and image cleanup, AI upscale and color restoration by RetroSpace HD. Some music segments were replaced by background sounds.
    The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, crossing the edge of outer space and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 35

  • @TastyBusiness
    @TastyBusiness 14 днів тому +2

    The X-15! My favorite!

  • @franciscoop1063
    @franciscoop1063 Місяць тому +1

    Yet another fascinating period documentary...😎

  • @charlieboutin3341
    @charlieboutin3341 Місяць тому

    Thank you for this video! I’ve always loved aviation and space flight. The X-15 was one of my favorite. I wrote to many astronauts (through NASA) in the early 70s and many sent me autographs. They’re among my most prized possessions. 🚀 👍👌

  • @ultrametric9317
    @ultrametric9317 Місяць тому +1

    The F-104 seen at 18:14 was involved in an infamous accident involving a PR photo for North American. Joe Walker was flying it in formation with the XB-70 prototype when the 104 got caught up in the complex air flow over the bomber's wings. It snapped inverted and crashed into the 70 knocking off one of the vertical fins and rendering the plane unflyable. The 104 exploded and Walker was killed. The pilot of 70 ejected and survived but his co-pilot did not.

  • @ultrametric9317
    @ultrametric9317 Місяць тому

    This is a great restoration of this film. More can be done but may not be necessary.

  • @hifi6638
    @hifi6638 Місяць тому +5

    I am immensely grateful for all the work done on restoring these old agency films.
    My father was chief Aerodynamicist for NACA, and then NASA, before promotion to Director of Space Vehicles Research and Development. He was deeply involved with promotion and oversight of the X15 from HQ. Joe Walker was a personal friend and was at our house several times.
    This film brings back many memories from an amazing time to be alive.
    Thank You!

    • @wrightmf
      @wrightmf Місяць тому

      Did he work with Hugh Dryden? I find it interesting when the X15 program started, Dryden was able have NACA manage it while the Air Force and Navy paid for it.

    • @charlieboutin3341
      @charlieboutin3341 Місяць тому +1

      Great story! Thank you for sharing this. 👍👍👌

    • @hifi6638
      @hifi6638 Місяць тому

      @@wrightmf Oh yes. Worked at HQ which was the Dolly Madison House on the edge of Lafayette Park, just a block or so from the White House. Sometimes when he went in on Saturdays he would take me along. I was just a few years old. Dad had all these manufacturers models in his office and I would take some and play in the hallway, and on the stairs. One time, Dr Dryden came along and stopped to talk and zoomed some models with me. I didn’t know who he was until Dad told me later.

    • @hifi6638
      @hifi6638 Місяць тому

      @@wrightmf NACA was authorized in 1952 to conduct research on issues of Space and Space Flight. The X15 was planned as a tool to explore the highest altitudes and speeds. NACA thought of space as someplace you would fly in to, and back. Rather than shot up in a container on the tip of a rocket.
      NACA also got the air force to turn over the X1 to them for flight testing. Initially Bell was planning to break the sound barrier as little more than a stunt. NACA convinced the AF let them conduct a full flight test program, with an AF pilot instead of Bells pilot Slick Goodlin. They wanted to learn everything about what this barrier thing was. How the air flowed, what shape it took, how it changed with change of speed and attitude. They found Yeager a nuisance, not a test pilot mentality of careful flight plan execution. Nor understanding the purpose of probing and examining, taking the data and plotting what it all meant. Then deciding how to probe and what to examine next. The purpose was to gain extensive knowledge not conduct a stunt. The movie TRS was a cartoon compared to the real story.

    • @wrightmf
      @wrightmf Місяць тому

      @@hifi6638 Cool! I never liked when they renamed DFRC to AFRC, I think Neil would agree to keep it in Dryden's name. After all, with no Hugh Dryden may not have the X15 which Armstrong flew. And the story goes when JFK asked senior NASA management of what sort of space project to get ahead of the Soviets, Dryden suggested a man on the moon.

  • @n6mz
    @n6mz Місяць тому +3

    Thank you for remastering this treasure of a film. There's only one X-15 driver still alive (General Joe Engle, USAF Ret., age 91) so seeing so many of the other X-15 pilots was fantastic, especially Joe Walker who perished when his F-104 collided with XB-70 62-0207 on June 8, 1966. This is also the only film I've seen of Harrison Storms, who "took the fall" for North American after the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967 (North American had proposed a mixed-gas atmosphere for the Apollo command module which was rejected by NASA in favor of pure oxygen).

    • @charlieboutin3341
      @charlieboutin3341 Місяць тому

      Very interesting! Thank you for sharing. 👍👍👌

  • @KaiWipfler
    @KaiWipfler Місяць тому

    Thanks for restoring. Excellent footage.

  • @djpalindrome
    @djpalindrome Місяць тому +2

    My favorite space program as a kid. Technology decades ahead of its time. Conceived in 1952. Still looks state of the art.

  • @wrightmf
    @wrightmf Місяць тому +5

    I first learned of X15 when in 1970s I found National Geographic issue from 1960s that had article about the X15 written by Joe Walker. And also had awesome photos (Kodak Xtrachrome), I was totally amazed, "wow they had a spaceplane back then!?!?" Few years later just after STS-1 NBC had a program about the X15, one part is where Scott Crossfield talked about many times it was tedious preparing the vehicle for flight even when mated to B52 and fueled, he said one time he sat in that for 8 hours while the techs were working to get all the systems functioning.

    • @djpalindrome
      @djpalindrome Місяць тому

      @@ THIS!! @@
      I hope I still have this issue somewhere

    • @charlieboutin3341
      @charlieboutin3341 Місяць тому

      Thank you for sharing this! 👍👌

    • @hifi6638
      @hifi6638 Місяць тому +1

      I think that film was the one by NBC called “The Rocket Pilots” - absolutely the BEST documentary on that period I have ever seen. It was everything The Right Stuff should have been. Unfortunately there are no clean copies available that I can find. Only copies of copies of slow speed VHS recordings. I would pay serious money for a good copy of that documentary. In the 1990s I contacted NBC to try and get access to the original as I was a video editor working on and mastering national programs. The word I got was it was dumped in some giant warehouse and no one had any idea where.

    • @wrightmf
      @wrightmf Місяць тому

      @@hifi6638 Another example of "save your physical media"

  • @jasonparis5635
    @jasonparis5635 Місяць тому +6

    My name is Friday I fly a experimental jet

  • @alan-sk7ky
    @alan-sk7ky Місяць тому +1

    Balls 008 and balls 003 in the same video. We are blessed 😊

    • @Nighthawke70
      @Nighthawke70 Місяць тому

      They are blessed to be on film.

  • @Hououin_Kyouma
    @Hououin_Kyouma Місяць тому

    It's a shame that in 60s US stopped development of key technologies very relevant nowadays: x-15, thorium reactors, space vehicles

  • @donmason2933
    @donmason2933 Місяць тому +2

    Narrator sounds like Jack Webb- Dragnet/ Badge 714

  • @RideAcrossTheRiver
    @RideAcrossTheRiver 28 днів тому +1

    Hey, Ridley! Ya got any Beeman's?

  • @andrewhillis9544
    @andrewhillis9544 14 днів тому +1

    I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW POTENTIALLY HOW FAST & HOW HIGH COULD THE X-15 GO ? ? ?🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

  • @KD5NJR
    @KD5NJR Місяць тому +1

    One doesn’t hear a lot about the x-2

  • @ronaldtartaglia4459
    @ronaldtartaglia4459 Місяць тому +1

    Interesting bit of information.A guy trying to smoke a cigarette.In an A-7 corsair 2 crashed into scott crossfield's office and destroyed all the records of his early flights in the x-15

    • @charlieboutin3341
      @charlieboutin3341 Місяць тому

      That’s incredible. Thanks for the story! 👍👍👌

    • @henrivanbemmel
      @henrivanbemmel Місяць тому

      With all the oxygen around it may not be just Crossfield's office that was wrecked. Really some people ...