The first X-15 powered flight….

Although X-15-1, 66670, was the first of the three X-15s delivered to NASA’s Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, it was actually X-15-2, 66671, that made the program’s first powered flight, on 17 September 1959. On Flight 2-1-3, test pilot Scott Crossfield flew 66671 to a speed of Mach 2.1. It was the first use of the LR-11 motor and lasted a little over 9 minutes.

This 1/48th-scale card model depicts Flight 2-1-3. As delivered to Edwards, 66671 showed North American Aviation hadn’t yet settled on standardized markings. For example, 66670 had U.S. AIR FORCE split between the fuselage and side tunnels, and the national insignias were wholly on the side tunnels. When 66671 was delivered, both the U.S. AIR FORCE legend and the national insignias were split between the fuselage and the side tunnels. Within a few months, NASA settled on a uniform look of having U.S. AIR FORCE solely on the forward side tunnels and the national insignias on the aft split between the fuselage and side tunnels.

The model is built out of 170gsm glossy stock. On their rollouts and first flights, the X-15s were painted black with a bluish tint and on 2-1-3, weathering was non-existent. The vehicle had only been aloft twice before -- once for a scheduled captive flight, and the other was a mission abort forced by a leaky vent. I rebuilt or scratchbuilt a number of items to improve accuracy, including the dorsal and ventral tails, the LR-11 motors and the vent and jettison tubes.