 Hey what's up everybody, it's Space Mike. So a couple of weeks ago I talked about Eugen Sanger's pioneering designs in space plane technology. Although after World War II, he worked for France and eventually for West Germany, one of his German counterparts, Walter Dornberger, would be very influential in the United States to bring about the eventual X-15 program. However, before we talk about the X-15, today I wanted to talk about a lot of the different aircraft that paved the way for successful X-15 flights. For this, your space pod for May 12, 2015. So I believe that we should start with the Douglas Skystreak, which was designed in 1945 by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the United States Navy and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, which is NASA's precursor organization. Anyway, the Douglas Skystreak's purpose was to test new aeronautic design and manufacturing processes to be able to withstand transonic and subsonic flight. Although it was powered by a turbojet engine, it did lead to several rocket powered aircraft. The Skystreak was quickly overshadowed by Bell Aircraft Company's X-1, which broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, piloted by Chuck Yeager. The X-1 was rocket powered and was dropped by a B-29 Stratofortress. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the newly created United States Air Force were behind the aircraft to conduct research on subsonic flight. After Chuck Yeager's famous flight, many variants of the aircraft were created for various purposes. After breaking the sound barrier, the next goal was to investigate speeds greater than Mach 2. The first aircraft to reach Mach 2 was the Douglas Skyrocket, which was the rocket powered follow-up to the Douglas Skystreak. That Mach 2 flight occurred on November 20, 1953, and like the X-1 was dropped by a B-29 Stratofortress, albeit a Navy-modified version. Due to the Skyrocket's achievements, the Bell X-1A also reached Mach 2 and set new altitude records, notably on a flight conducted on December 12, 1953. After many successful X-1 flights, research began on a modified X-1D aircraft to collect heat transfer data. On its only successful flight on July 24, 1951, after an unpowered glide test, its nose landing gear failed upon landing until the aircraft slid to a stop. After repairs on its second flight, the aircraft was destroyed when an explosion occurred during fuel preparations. After some of the success of the X-1 program, the NACA in the United States Air Force initiated the X-2 program to investigate the heating effects of aerodynamic friction at high speeds. At the same time, its engine pioneered throttable rocket motors. Its first unpowered test flight was conducted on June 27, 1952, and was piloted by Jean Skip Ziegler. Subsequently, on May 12, 1953, an in-flight explosion occurred during a captive flight under a B-50 bomber when the liquid oxygen system was being tested. The aircraft was destroyed and Ziegler lost his life in the process. Another X-2 aircraft previously built was used to make successful powered flights beginning on November 18, 1955. However, on a flight on September 27, 1956, Milburn G. Apt was piloting the aircraft and became the first man to reach Mach 3. During the flight, the aircraft experienced the phenomenon of inertia coupling, where high-speed inertia overpowers the stabilizing forces of the aircraft and sends it into an uncontrolled spin on all three of its axes. This was experienced three years earlier on Jaeger's X-1A flight on December 12, 1953, but Chuck Jaeger was able to regain control of his aircraft. Milburn Apt was not able to recover from this and ejected from the X-2, although he never did pull his main parachute and died, unfortunately. Presumably because he was knocked unconscious by G-forces. Between 1954 and 1958, the United States Air Force and the NACA were working on the X-1B program, and with that it was the first aircraft to feature reaction control thrusters, increasing its stability and control to fight the inertia coupling problem. After that, the X-1C was intended to test weapons at high speeds, however due to North American aviation's development of the F-86 Sabre and F-100 Super Sabre, there was no need for an experimental aircraft. And just kind of on a personal note, something that's cool for me is my grandfather was actually an F-100 pilot. And if you want to find out more information about that, I'm going to be doing interviews with him about his very, very cool aviation history. So anyway, look for that in the future. I'll plug for that at a future date. Between 1955 and 1958, research was also conducted on the X-1E, which featured multiple upgrades. Notably the cause for the X-1D fuel explosion was traced to leather gaskets that used a combustible leather treatment. These were of course replaced, and the entire incident fostered greater safety procedures on many future aircraft and spacecraft development. The X-1E also improved its turbopump feed system, had reprofiled wings, and a new windscreen canopy that enabled the inclusion of an injection seat, and also more sensors to collect data. All of these programs would culminate in the X-15 program, which was the first true space plane, albeit a suborbital space plane, and it deserves an entire video to describe it. So the next time that we're going to be talking about space planes, we're going to discuss the X-15 in depth. But for now, I'm kind of running out of time, so I'm going to leave it at that for now and just know that these aircraft paved the way for all of the future space plane development, culminating of course into the space shuttle. So we're going to get there eventually, but I'm just going to leave it at that for now. Thank you for watching this video. My name is Michael Clark, and I would love to know what you guys think about these experimental aircraft that paved the way for space planes. And I would especially like to know, in what sort of ways would you pay tribute to the pilots who lost their lives in developing these experimental aircraft? Let me know what you think. If you would like to support us in making these space pods, then please visit our Patreon campaign at patreon.com slash space pod. There you can find out more information about how you can become a citizen tomorrow and make this show happen. And to everyone who's contributed already, I just thank you so much. I am just beyond words about your guys' willingness to be able to contribute to this show. So thank you very much to everyone who's contributed so far. Thank you again for watching this video. Keep moving onwards and upwards, and I will see you guys next time.