X-15 Powered Flight

September 17, 1959 -
The first powered flight of the X-15, piloted by Scott Crossfield.

Maiden Flight of the X-15

June 8, 1959 - The X-15's maiden flight.

A technician straps test pilot Scott Crossfield into the cockpit of the missile-shaped X-15 rocket plane before flight. Crossfield is carried aloft in his sleek, black rocket plane beneath the wing of a B-52 from NASA's Flight Research Center. It's the beginning of flight research probing the hypersonic speed realm and altitudes at the edge of space.

Image Credit: NASA/North American Aviation

Into Outer Space

Advertisment for the new selection of authentically recreated Strombecker space craft model kits, after those seen in Disney's "Man in Space" designed by Wernher von Braun.

from the Royal Air Force Flying Review, October 1959

Man in Space - The Ferry Rocket

Man in Space is an episode of Disneyland which originally aired on March 9, 1955 and later, was edited into a featurette to play in theaters.

The episode was converted into a 32 page comic book ("Dell Comics" (#716)) in 1956. Under the title Walt Disney's Man in Space: A Science Feature from Tomorrowland.

It was also made into a "Tomorrowland adventure" book for classroom use in 1959 as Man in Space: A Tomorrowland Adventure.