Nasa Rename
Air Force Flight Test Museum, Air Force and Marine volunteers towed the X-15 mockup to NASA May 8, for display during the Armstrong Flight Research Center renaming ceremony. The volunteers also performed repairs to the mockup's frame and painted it, with a limited amount of time. In the joint X-15 hypersonic research program that NASA conducted with the Air Force, the Navy, and North American Aviation, Inc., the aircraft flew over a period of nearly 10 years and set the world's unofficial speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7) and 354,200 feet in a program to investigate all aspects of piloted hypersonic flight. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo piloted spaceflight programs as well as the Space Shuttle program. Volunteers who moved the X-15 Mock-up: Robert Cohn, Air Force Flight Test Museum volunteer; Phillip Cook, 412th Maintenance Squadron; Christopher Coyne, 412th Test Engineering Group; Staff Sgt. Bryant Genuino, 412th Maintenance Logistics Squadron; Senior Airman Lucas Underwood, 412th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron; Master Sgt. Justin Jerome, 411th Flight Test Squadron. U.S. Marine volunteers from Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center Detachment 1 Sgt. Dane Long, Sgt. Douglas McCarty, Sgt. Ricardo Contreras, Sgt. William Sullivan, Master Sgt. Alan Proctor, (Courtesy photo)