On each flight, as it comes closer to its design speed of 4,000 m.p.h., the experimental X-15 rocket plane usually sets a record. Last week it set another: Test Pilot Joe Walker flew it at 3,370 m.p.h., which is 296 m.p.h. faster than Major Robert White's flight last April 21. Only Russia's Spaceman Yuri Gagarin and the U.S.'s Alan Shepard have ever flown faster. As his ship nosed over, after reaching a peak altitude of 110,000 ft., Walker was weightless for almost a full minute.
U.S. airmen hung up another speed record last week when...
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