At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program

This is a favorite of mine. I had a copy years ago, lent it to a friend, and forgot to ask for it back when we moved. If you like engineering, get a copy and read. Milt Thompson is a fine writer. He captures the X-15 story just like that…telling a story. I’d love to have heard him in person.

My father in law is Milt Thompson, so as I said in the title I might be a bit biased. I was fortunate enough to hear most of these stories first hand, and I have to tell you, Milt was a great storyteller! We loved it when he would reminisce about his test flight days! I purchased this book for a cousin who is interested in the test flight programs and loved getting pictures from his wife as he was reading, laughing so hard tears were streaming down this South Dakota rancher’s face! I love the book and love the incredible man even more!

The author Milt, was not only on the scene, but one of the pilots of the plane. The book covers some humorous incidents, but he's a test pilot, not a humorist, so they were probably a lot funnier when they happened, than they appear in the book. There were some lines where I actually laughed, however.I wish he had gone into more detail about acquiring the Pontiac Bonneville and souping up its engine so they could do tcaptive flight ests on a lifting body, instead of just saying something like it took some doing to get the car.There didn't seem to be a lot of unneccessary verbage in the book, which is understandable because these pilots are trained to be accurate and succinct. Neal Armstrong was probably one of the most accurate and succinct of them all. He was an early X-15 test pilot, and wrote the forword. At first I was disappointed it wasn't longer, but then I realized that as publicity shy as Armstrong was, we are lucky to have anything written by him in the book. And, to his nature, his forword was accurate and succinct.There are pictures in the book. Milt says some of them don't officially exist. I liked the one where the fuselage buckled and the pilot made a 4 point landing! I just wish some of them could have been in color, but color pictures would have made the book too expensive. I just wish he would have noted the unofficial pictures. There is another X-15 book (that I don't have) that is filled with X-15 pictures. (Later)Apollo got us to the moon before the Soviet Union, but the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs mostly just delayed the Space Shuttle, and derailled the DynaSoar program.In summary, if you like rockets, airplanes, or space, you should get this book.

The reader's judgement of this book will depend greatly on how interested they are in aerospace history. This is not a novel, and it wasn't intended to be read as though it were one. Thompson makes very clear that his motivation in writing this book was to document for posterity the development of the X-15 aircraft and the lessons learned from those flights. Fortunately, Thompson is perhaps the most qualified person to undertake this task: he was one of the pilots involved with the program throughout most its lifespan, and held onto copious, highly detailed records. The X-15 was all about scientific research and development, and as such, the author sometimes goes into very in-depth discussions of the technical challenges faced and the whys and wherefores of equipment and procedural changes. When Thompson moves from discussing equipment and flight data to his personal career and his interactions with fellow members of the program, his writing falters ever so slightly and his recollections are somewhat more random. It is at these moments that the reader must remind himself or herself that Thompson never claimed to be a professional author. He was a talented pilot and intelligent engineer who was privileged to experience firsthand the most remarkable and audacious manned atmospheric flights ever attempted. If that sounds impressive to you, get this book. The details are as even more remarkable than you'd imagine.

What a wondrous venture was the NASA X-15 programme! To strap a man into a stainless steel fuselage packed with a cocktail of volatile propellants, powered by an engine descended directly from the V-2 missile, all in the name of science. The pilots who flew these three machines, Milt Thompson among them, were in effect the last of their breed, with a lineage stretching back through Yeager to Bleriot and the Wright Brothers. These men's story - and the story of the three black missiles they manned (one of which still hangs in the Smithsonian's main gallery) - make this tale one that deserved telling. But as engineer, programme pilot and author Thompson admits, it deserves to be told well and, I believe, more skilfully than he has. While the tale itself cannot fail to hold the reader's interest, the method in which it is told is often stilted, confusing and flawed. It varies between being at times overly simplistic, and at others assuming more than the average reader will know. Ever experienced a PIO? That's a pilot-induced-oscillation, and its acronym is introduced, unexplained, early in the book. Ever been to High Key? Luckily, I have, so I knew what the author meant when he referred to it, again at first unexplained. Some of this book's confusion may in part be due to poor editing and rearranging of text. Indeed (and shockingly for the Smithsonian's own press) the book in one place refers to what we civilians would call 1pm as "1,300". Might that be 1300?! Thompson's first-person narrative is shot through with a conceit typical of jet pilots of any age. Several times, the author refers to the joys of using "his" aircraft to fly lower than is safe (or necessary) just for fun or, more often, to terrify some lesser mortal on the ground. Still, as a snapshot of a personality type most of us believe only to exist in movies, this aspect of the book is at least illuminating. "At the edge of Space" is essential reading for anyone interested in this late-fifties programme that set records unbroken today, and laid the foundations for the Space Shuttle and winged orbiter programmes to come. Milton Thompson's book has filled a real need for a history of the programme, and it's unlikely now that anyone will bother writing another. And I think that's a shame.

Great book with very interesting insights to both the aircraft and the life lived testing it at the edge of both the atmosphere and what was possible in aerobatics at the time. Lovely writing style - warm, and insightful with a passion for flight that shines through. Added it to two other x15 titles from D Jenkins. All three really compliment each other.

Informative and well-written

Fabously informative and interesting book - wanted it for a long time

At times novel at times technical paper, despite the numerous technical information provided (to the geeks delight), with some humor spinkled here and there, it's a nice to read piece.A bit repetitive sometimes.

Very detailed account of the X15 programme, awesome accounts of the flying and testing and the life surrounding the programme. A real test pilots account in the golden age of high speed flight. A must read for pilots and enthusiasts alike. The book is an education in to period of research that must not be forgotten!