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15.11.1967 odbył się 191. lot X-15 z Michaelem J, Adamsem, który osiągnął wysokość 81080 metrów i prędkość 5744 km/h (5,20 Mach).
Trzeci egzemplarz X-15 rozpadł się w powietrzu.
Adams doświadczał przeciążeń na poziomie 15G.
Pilot zginął.
Komisja powypadkowa stwierdziła, że Adams stracił kontrolę nad X-15 wskutek wystąpienia jednoczesnego rozproszenia uwagi, błędnej interpretacji informacji na wyświetlaczu przyrządów i możliwych zawrotów głowy wywołanych dużymi przeciążeniami.
During one flight that reached an altitude of 266,000 feet, thus qualifying the pilot for astronaut wings, an electrical short caused the autopilot to shut off. While trying to fly the plane and simultaneously conduct experiments, Maj. Michael J. Adams was overtasked. He noticed the aircraft drift sideways and enter a spin, but managed to get it into a semicontrolled dive. Falling at 4,000 miles an hour, the X-15 began to oscillate, and then broke into pieces at 62,000 feet above the ground. Adams was unable to eject. Most of the wreckage landed on private property, north of Red Mountain. A memorial to the pilot was constructed on public land north of the site.
https://clui.org/projects/down-earth-experimental-aircraft-crash-sites/x-15-november-15-1967FINAL FLIGHT: X-15, SHIP NO. 3November 20, 2019 | J. Terry White
Fifty-two years ago this month, the No. 3 USAF/North American X-15 research aircraft broke-up during a steep dive from an apogee of 266,000 feet. The pilot, USAF Major Michael J. Adams, perished when his aircraft was ripped apart by aerodynamic forces as it passed through 65,000 feet at more than 2,500 mph.
The hypersonic X-15 was arguably the most productive X-Plane of all time. Between 1959 and 1968, a trio of X-15 aircraft were flown by a dozen pilots for a total of 199 official flight research missions. Along the way, the fabled X-15 established manned aircraft records for speed (4,534 mph; Mach 6.72) and altitude (354,200 feet).
The X-15 was a rocket, aircraft and spacecraft all rolled into one. Burning anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen, its XLR-99 rocket engine generated 57,000 lbs of sea level thrust. Reaction controls were required for flight in vacuum. Each flight also required careful management of aircraft energy state to ensure a successful, one attempt only, unpowered landing.
On Wednesday, 15 November 1967, the No. 3 X-15 (S/N 56-6672) made the 191st flight of the X-15 Program. In the cockpit was USAF Major Michael J. Adams making his 7th flight in the X-15. He had been flying the aircraft since October of 1966. Like all X-15 pilots, he was a skilled, accomplished test pilot used to dealing with the demands and high risk of flight research work.
X-15 Ship No. 3 was launched from its B-52B (S/N 52-0008) mothership over Nevada’s Delamar Dry Lake at 18:30 UTC. As the X-15 fell away from the launch aircraft at Mach 0.82 and 45,000 feet, Adams fired the XLR-99 and started uphill along a trajectory that was supposed to top-out around 250,000 feet. If all went well, Adams would land on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base in California roughly 10 minutes later.
Around 85,000 on the way upstairs, Adams became distracted when an electrical disturbance from an onboard flight experiment adversely affected the X-15’s flight control system, flight computer and inertial reference system. As a result, data on several key cockpit displays became corrupted. Though with some difficulty, Adams pressed-on with the flight which peaked-out around 266,000 feet approximately three (3) minutes from launch.
As a result of degraded flight systems and perhaps disoriented by vertigo, Mike Adams soon discovered that his aircraft was veering from the intended heading. He indicated to the control room at Edwards that his steed was not controlling correctly. Passing through 230,000 feet, Adams cryptically radioed that he was in a Mach 5 spin. Mission control was stunned. There was nothing in the X-15 flight manual that even addressed such a possibility.
Incredibly, Mike Adams somehow managed to recover from his hypersonic spin as the X-15 passed through 118,000 feet. However, the aircraft was inverted and in a 45-degree dive at Mach 4.7. Still, Adams may very well have recovered from this precarious flight state but for the appearance of another flight system problem just as he recovered the X-15 from its horrific spin.
X-15 Ship No. 3 was configured with a Minneapolis-Honeywell adaptive flight control system (AFCS). Known as the MH-96, the AFCS was supposed to help the pilot control the X-15 during high performance flight. Unfortunately, the unit entered a limit-cycle oscillation just after spin recovery and failed to change gains as the dynamic pressure rapidly increased during Ship No. 3’s final descent. This anomaly saturated the X-15 flight control system and effectively overrode manual inputs from the pilot.
The limit-cycle oscillation drove the X-15’s pitch rate to intolerably-high values in the face of rapidly increasing dynamic pressure. Passing through 65,000 feet at better than 2,500 mph (Mach 3.9), Ship No. 3 came apart northeast of Johannesburg, California. The main wreckage impacted just northwest of Cuddeback Dry Lake. Mike Adams had made his final flight.
For his flight to 266,000 feet, USAF Major Michael J. Adams was posthumously awarded Astronaut Wings by the United States Air Force. His name was included on the roll of the Astronaut Memorial at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in 1991. Finally, on Saturday, 08 May 2004, a small memorial was erected to the memory of Major Adams near his X-15 crash site situated roughly 39 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base.https://www.whiteeagleaerospace.com/final-flight-x-15-ship-no-3/https://archiwum.tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/68/tvn24.pl/magazyn-tvn24/siegnal-kosmosu-ale-nie-mial-szanshttps://www.nasa.gov/image-article/x-15-ship-3-launched-over-delamar-lake-nv/https://migflug.com/jetflights/the-north-american-x-15/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190001985/downloads/20190001985.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-15_Flight_3-65-9715 November 1967. Death of Michael James 'Mike' Adams, USAF test pilot, when his X-15 broke up in the air during flight 3-65-97, also known as X-15 Flight 191. Only fatality during the X-15 flight program.
https://twitter.com/ron_eisele/status/172451496808562698515 November 1967. X-15 No. 3, with US Air Force pilot Michael J. Adams at the controls, spins out of control over the California desert during flight 3-65-97.
https://x.com/ron_eisele/status/17245150558808599321967 November 15 - . Launch Site: Edwards.
Death of Michael James 'Mike' Adams at Edwards AFB, California, in crash of X-15 Flight 191. - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Adams. American test pilot astronaut 1965-1966. Spacecraft went out of control during reentry. 1 suborbital spaceflight on the X-15, 0.1 hours in space..
http://www.astronautix.com/n/november15.htmlHow the Fastest Plane of All Times Crashed (X-15)When Rocket Planes Turn Fatal
Wątek: X-15 (Przeczytany 53875 razy)