X-15 l'avion-fusée

From the late 50s, this early Charles Bronson starrer dramatized the real-life development of the rocket-powered X-15 experimental aircraft, which was launched from the belly of a B-52 bomber and was flown by test pilots to high speeds and high altitude in an effort to touch the edge of space.

The X-15 was a successful part of the development program that also included precursors like the X-1 and the Stiletto, and later produced pilots for NASA and technology used in early space shuttle concepts.

I saw the film more than once on its initial run, and it seems to me this was sometimes double-billed with the somewhat similar air power goings-on of Karl Maulden's BOMBERS B-52.

Substantial good footage of actual X-15 flights, better than in some of the documentaries I've seen. The strongest points of this film are the flight footage and its technical accuracy.

This film was produced with meticulous script review of technical details by NASA Dryden and by the Air Force. Even in shots showing actors faking flight actions in the cockpit what they show is accurate in the sense that it's the truth even if it's not the whole truth. The best way to appreciate much of this is to first study the X-15 flight manual. In any case the attention to technical accuracy is remarkable by the standards of sci fi & aviation/space movies made around 1961. It appeared that nearly the entire film was shot on location at NASA Dryden and Edwards AFB. All flight footage is real except for a couple short hokey segments showing a model for flight outside the atmosphere and during reentry.

The rest (script, production, directing, & such) is fairly lame and underwhelming. If only Tom Hanks had an urge to redo this film the result probably would be a great one, but it wasn't Tom Hanks who did this edition.

Bottom line: X-plane enthusiasts will love the real & authentic action, but most others will conclude that it's appropriate for this flick to only show up infrequently on obscure cable & satellite channels.

Baby Boomers like me often wonder why manned space exploration seems so far behind the expectations of the 1960's. Instead of seeing humans walk on Mars, we're left with an all-but-useless space station serviced by 40-year-old Russian capsules and dangerously obsolescent American shuttles.

X-15 offers a glimpse of how things might have turned out. It's hard to believe there actually was an alternative to such dead-ends programs as Project Apollo, Skylab, and the Space Shuttle. The legendary rocketeer Werner Von Braun thought that America should enter space in stages: i.e., build a reusable orbiter, construct a large, permanent space station, and then use that platform to construct inexpensive, reusable vehicles for further exploration. Unfortunately, President John Kennedy's Race to the Moon made such a logical course of action impossible. X-15 shows, in part, how the U.S. Air Force wanted to fulfill Von Braun's vision.

The film is, for the most part, historically and technologically accurate. Few remember how exciting the X-15 rocket plane was as it left Earth's atmosphere years before the "tin cans" of Project Mercury. Despite negative claims from NASA (which coveted the millions of space research dollars going to the Air Force) a follow-up of the X-15, the X-20 Dyna Soar, might have orbited the Earth by the mid-1960's. Interestingly, the film includes cameo appearances of actual network TV correspondents who were convinced the X-15 would help America establish a permanent presence in space. A combination of factors: the urgency of Kennedy's race to the moon; the economic demands of the Viet Nam War; and reasonable fears of militarizing space killed off the Air Force's more-logical approach to earth orbit.

The film's dramatic climax, which depicts an X-15 actually orbiting the Earth, is a clear case of cinematic license. (The real X-15 was capable of sub-orbital flights only.) Nevertheless, a larger, two-man version, the X-15B, was designed by North American Rockwell, and there are many that still believe it could have achieved low earth orbit.

It's clear that director Richard Donner was given unprecedented access to the Air Force's facilities at Edwards Air Force Base/Dryden Research Center. The battle for funding with NASA was a make-or-break challenge, and the USAF clearly recognized the value of the mass media, and of providing a heroic and practical image of its X-15 program to American filmgoers. Although the film X-15 might be criticized on a number of artistic levels, it nevertheless stands as a valuable bit of early-1960's nostalgia that offers a rare glimpse into a forgotten chapter of space exploration.

As a teenager I don't see myself falling into the average 6 voting. Even though the 60s is not my decade, I still love this movie. It should be appreciated for the simply its existence. Besides the Right Stuff, we don't really see much of them depict the space race so specifically. Starring MTM and Bronson is better than random actors anyways. At least we see how fine MTM use to be.

Inviting popular movie stars showed how important this project is. The power of how much people cares during that decade is amazing compare to the significance of it today. Usually, how much public cares indicates how well the technological advancement is going to turn out.Unfortunately that enthusastism is long gone... You won't see another movie over space exploration anymore.

The recent success of the SpaceShipOne spacecraft brought back to mind the early attempt at sub-orbital flights. Its designer, told us that he based his design on the X-15. Growing up in the 60's and 70's, the space race was part of our lives and the X-15 program was one more step towards space supremacy between the USA and the Soviet Union. Although this beautiful bird was finally shelved, the courage and vision of its designers merits that we take a second look at it. This movie, presented almost like a NASA -US AIR Force documentary, stayed in my mind although I was just a kid when I saw it on TV, some 30 odd years ago. Filmed in the early sixties, this story introduces the viewer to the team of 3 pilots that relay each other in the seat of the X-15 experimental rocket plane. The family life of these test pilots is also interesting as it is explained that these men need emotional stability to do their job. We are introduced to a young Mary Tyler Moore as one of the pilots fiancée. A young Charles Bronson plays one of these family men / test pilots with great presence .The flying scenes footage is of relative good quality but the sub-orbital scenes are poorly crafted animations that look terribly amateurish as we are now used to Computer Generated Images and other new special effects techniques. All in all, this is a good movie for any space race fan, and the DVD fits nicely in the library next to others such as The Right Stuff, From the Earth to the Moon and Apollo 13. I gave it a 7 for historical and documentary value.