Increased Piloting Tasks and Performance of X-15A-2 in Hypersonic Flight

In past years, flying a basic X-15 from launch through a dead stick landing on a precise speed and altitude profile was considered a demanding piloting task. The success of each mission was determined by the pilot's ability to perform under the physiological and psychological stresses of flight into a hostile flight environment of high Mach numbers, high accelerations, high altitude, and limiting temperatures. Today the aircraft has been extensively modified to qualify the X-15 as a test bed vehicle for a ramjet engine, which will be carried in place of the movable ventral, providing real time flight environment for testing and developing an operational prototype ramjet for use on future hypersonic cruise vehicles. The additional systems pictured in Fig. 1 (external tanks, ramjet, external window, and ablative coating), their associated emergency procedures and the degraded flying characteristics of the X-15A-2 have increased the pilot's workload significantly over the standard X-15 mission.