THE ORIGINAL CONTRACTOR PLAN

To make sure everything went as smoothly as possible, North American selected Q. C. Harvey to run its X-15 operations at Edwards. Harvey had come to the high desert a decade earlier to work on the odd McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, and then migrated to Bell to work on the X-1 program. He had joined North American in 1953 to work on the F-86 and later the F-100 and YF-107 programs. Considered a good manager with excellent technical skills, he also worked well with Scott Crossfield. In everybody’s opinion, he was a good choice.1311

According to the production contract, North American had to demonstrate each airplane’s general airworthiness above Mach 2 before delivering it to the Air Force, which would then turn it over to NASA. Mach 3 and beyond were part of the government flight program. Initially, North American planned to demonstrate the basic capabilities of the first two airplanes using the XLR11 engines while the third airplane waited in Inglewood for the arrival of the XLR99. At this point, all three airplanes were essentially identical in configuration except for the engines-the MH-96 adaptive flight control system was not part of the plan yet. After the company checked out the first two airplanes, the government would use them for the envelope expansion tests and the research program. North American would then demonstrate X-15-3 with the XLR99 engine for a couple of flights before turning it over to the government. Once the government accepted the third airplane with the XLR99, North American would install the ultimate engine in the first two airplanes. North American would then fly one or two flights in each airplane with the XLR99 and turn them back over to the government.1321 It all seemed so simple.

airplane over to the government. Crossfield made nine contractor flights in X-15-2 with the XLR11s, and three more with the XLR99 before North American turned that airplane over to the government. The company never flew X-15-3, and Neil Armstrong took the airplane for its first flight after North American finished rebuilding it after the XLR99 ground explosion.