1/285 NAA X-15 ROCKET PLANE (3)

By request - America's first space plane! Built by North American Aviation in the early 1960's to test technologies for advanced high speed flight and space travel, the X-15 flew 199 times, air dropped from a B-52 mothership. Flying as high as 67 miles up and as fast as 4,500 miles per hour, the knowledge gained from these flights helped develop the space shuttle and the men who flew these flights were among the US's first astronauts.