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63-405: Gene Courtier, an employee of North American at Edwards AFB , stops his car on the way home for hitchhiker Victor Gosset, a wanted criminal and member of a gang of three robbers headed by Robert Batsford and new addition Luther Logan. When the gang discovers that Courtier only has a few dollars in cash, they threaten to kill him but instead concoct a plan to force him to sell his car and surrender

126-460: A hypersonic research aircraft. The requests for proposal (RFPs) were published on 30   December 1954 for the airframe and on 4   February 1955 for the rocket engine . The X-15 was built by two manufacturers: North American Aviation was contracted for the airframe in November 1955, and Reaction Motors was contracted for building the engines in 1956. Like many X-series aircraft,

189-492: A reaction control system (RCS) that used rocket thrusters. There were two different X-15 pilot control setups: one used three joysticks, the other, one joystick. The X-15 type with multiple control sticks for the pilot placed a traditional center stick between a left 3-axis joystick that sent commands to the Reaction Control System, and a third joystick on the right used during high-G maneuvers to augment

252-529: A 1962 proposal, NASA considered using the B-52/X-15 as a launch platform for a Blue Scout rocket to place satellites weighing up to 150 pounds (68 kg) into orbit. In July and August 1963, pilot Joe Walker exceeded 100 km in altitude, joining NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts as the first human beings to cross that line on their way to outer space . The USAF awarded astronaut wings to anyone achieving an altitude of 50 miles (80 km), while

315-485: A better chance to escape. Batsford demands $ 200,000. Courtier's father is given one night to obtain the large sum. Courtier's wife calls the police, who begin to trace the gang's phone calls. The hoodlums take Courtier to their expensive hillside hideout, and behind the scenes the police work feverishly to determine their location. There is friction within the gang, and when Courtier and Logan attempt to escape, Batsford shoots Logan dead and recaptures Courtier. Doris stalls

378-446: A contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Howard Thompson wrote: "If Andrew Stone 's 'The Night Holds Terror' is far from memorable, the ingenious writer-director-producer must be accorded a bright green light for what he has accomplished in this tight, economical and steadily suspenseful little picture. Certainly most of the cards are stacked against it. The familiar plot, for instance, has three murderous hoodlums invading

441-494: A main-engine start. The main rocket engine operated only for a relatively short part of the flight but boosted the X-15 to its high speeds and altitudes. Without the main rocket engine thrust, the X-15's instruments and control surfaces remained functional, but the aircraft could not maintain altitude. As the X-15 also had to be controlled in an environment where there was too little air for aerodynamic flight control surfaces , it had

504-593: A public company. Nevertheless, NAA continued with new designs, including the T-28 Trojan trainer and attack aircraft, the F-82 Twin Mustang fighter, B-45 Tornado jet bomber, the FJ Fury fighter, AJ Savage , the revolutionary XB-70 Valkyrie Mach-3 strategic bomber , Shrike Commander , and T-39 Sabreliner business jet. The Columbus, Ohio division of North American Aviation was instrumental in

567-421: A speed of about 500 miles per hour (805 km/h). The X-15 fuselage was long and cylindrical, with rear fairings that flattened its appearance, and thick, dorsal and ventral wedge-fin stabilizers. Parts of the fuselage (the outer skin ) were heat-resistant nickel alloy ( Inconel -X   750). The retractable landing gear comprised a nose-wheel carriage and two rear skids. The skids did not extend beyond

630-666: The FAI set the limit of space at 100 kilometers (62.1 mi). On 15   November 1967, U.S. Air Force test pilot Major Michael J. Adams was killed during X-15 Flight 191 when X-15-3, AF Ser. No. 56-6672 , entered a hypersonic spin while descending, then oscillated violently as aerodynamic forces increased after re-entry. As his aircraft's flight control system operated the control surfaces to their limits, acceleration built to 15  g 0 (150  m/s ) vertical and 8.0  g 0 (78  m/s ) lateral. The airframe broke apart at 60,000 feet (18 km) altitude, scattering

693-601: The O-47 and BT-9 , also called the GA-16. The BC-1 of 1937 was North American's first combat aircraft; it was based on the GA-16. In 1940, like other manufacturers, North American started gearing up for war, opening factories in Columbus, Ohio , Dallas, Texas , and Kansas City, Kansas . North American ranked eleventh among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. North American's follow-on to

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756-614: The S-II second stage of the Saturn V . The fatal Apollo 1 fire in January 1967 was initially blamed on the company in the press, although a Congressional Hearing later ruled otherwise. In September, it merged with Rockwell-Standard, and the merged company became known as North American Rockwell . During this period the company continued its involvement with the Apollo program , building

819-552: The Space Shuttle orbiter . Through a series of mergers and sales, North American Aviation became part of North American Rockwell , which later became Rockwell International , and is now part of Boeing . On December 6, 1928, Clement Melville Keys founded North American as a holding company that bought and sold interests in various airlines and aviation-related companies. However, the Air Mail Act of 1934 forced

882-647: The US Navy and US Marine Corps for four decades. The Buckeye's name would be an acknowledgment to the state tree of Ohio , as well as the mascot of Ohio State University . The North American F-86 Sabre started out as a redesigned Fury and achieved fame shooting down MiGs in the Korean War . Over 9,000 F-86s were produced. Its successor, the North American F-100 Super Sabre , was also popular. Some 6,656 F-86s were produced in

945-568: The X-15 , a rocket-powered aircraft that first flew in 1959. In 1959, North American built the first of several Little Joe boosters used to test the launch escape system for the Project Mercury spacecraft . In 1960, the new CEO Lee Atwood decided to focus on the space program , and the company became the prime contractor for the Apollo command and service module , a larger Little Joe II rocket to test Apollo's launch escape system, and

1008-517: The XLR99 rocket engine, generating 57,000 pounds-force (250 kN) of thrust. The remaining 175   flights of the X-15 used XLR99 engines, in a single engine configuration. The XLR99 used anhydrous ammonia and liquid oxygen as propellant, and hydrogen peroxide to drive the high-speed turbopump that delivered propellants to the engine. It could burn 15,000 pounds (6,804 kg) of propellant in 80   seconds; Jules Bergman titled his book on

1071-597: The space border . All five Air Force pilots flew above 50   miles and were awarded military astronaut wings contemporaneously with their achievements, including Adams, who received the distinction posthumously following the flight   191 disaster . However the other three were NASA employees and did not receive a comparable decoration at the time. In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration conferred its first-ever commercial astronaut wings on Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie , pilots of

1134-410: The 1960s, crossing the edge of outer space and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design. The X-15's highest speed, 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h; 2,021 m/s), was achieved on 3   October 1967, when William J. Knight flew at Mach   6.7 at an altitude of 102,100 feet (31,120 m), or 19.34   miles. This set the official world record for

1197-673: The BT-9 was the T-6 Texan trainer, of which 17,000 were built, making it the most widely used trainer ever. The twin-engine B-25 Mitchell bomber achieved fame in the Doolittle Raid and was used in all combat theaters of operation. The P-51 Mustang was initially produced for Britain as an alternative to the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk , which North American had declined to produce under licence. The derivative A-36 Mustang

1260-662: The Columbus plant grew from 1,600 in 1950 to 18,000 in 1952. The cancellation of the F-107 and F-108 programs in the late 1950s, as well as the cancellation of the Navaho intercontinental cruise missile program, was a blow to North American from which it never fully recovered. Atomics International was a division of North American Aviation which began as the Atomic Energy Research Department at

1323-798: The Command and Service modules for all eleven missions. Within two years the new company also was studying concepts for the Space Shuttle , and won the orbiter contract in 1972. In 1973, the company changed its name again to Rockwell International and named its aircraft division North American Aircraft Operations. Rockwell International's defense and space divisions (including the North American Aviation divisions Autonetics and Rocketdyne) were sold to Boeing in December 1996. Initially called Boeing North American, these groups were integrated with Boeing's Defense division. Rocketdyne

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1386-564: The Downey plant in 1948. In 1955, the department was renamed Atomics International and engaged principally in the early development of nuclear technology and nuclear reactors for both commercial and government applications. Atomics International was responsible for a number of accomplishments relating to nuclear energy: design, construction and operation of the first nuclear reactor in California (a small aqueous homogeneous reactor located at

1449-861: The NAA Downey plant), the first nuclear reactor to produce power for a commercial power grid in the United States (the Sodium Reactor Experiment located at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory ) and the first nuclear reactor launched into outer space by the United States (the SNAP-10A ). As overall interest in nuclear power declined, Atomics International transitioned to non-nuclear energy-related projects such as coal gasification and gradually ceased designing and testing nuclear reactors. Atomics International

1512-553: The P-51 into what many consider to be the best American fighter of the war. Labor troubles became a grave issue in 1941. During the 22 months from August 1939 to June 1941 Stalin and Hitler supported each other as war raged in Europe. In the U.S., local union officials opposed American aid to Britain's war against Germany. They called strikes in war industries that were supplying Lend Lease to Britain. The United Auto Workers (UAW) won

1575-555: The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum for display. Both surviving X-15s are currently on display at museums in the United States. In addition, three mockups and both B-52 Stratofortresses used as motherships are on display as well. During 13 of the 199 total X-15 flights, eight pilots flew above 264,000 feet (50.0 mi; 80 km), thereby qualifying as astronauts according to the US Armed Forces definition of

1638-521: The USSR on June 22, the Communist activists suddenly became the strongest supporters of war production; they crushed wildcat strikes. Post-war, North American's employment dropped from a high of 91,000 to 5,000 in 1946. On V-J Day , North American had orders from the U.S. government for 8,000 aircraft. A few months later, that had dropped to 24. Two years later in 1948, General Motors divested NAA as

1701-492: The United States, the most produced postwar military aircraft in the West, as well as another 2,500 elsewhere. To accommodate its Sabre production, North American opened facilities in a former Curtiss-Wright plant in Columbus, Ohio . It also moved into a former Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft plant at Downey, California , and in 1948, built a new plant at Downey. By the end of 1952, North American sales topped $ 315 million. Employment at

1764-400: The X-15 was designed to be carried aloft and drop launched from under the wing of a B-52 mother ship . Air Force NB-52A, "The High and Mighty One" (serial 52-0003), and NB-52B, "The Challenger" (serial 52-0008, also known as Balls 8 ) served as carrier planes for all X-15 flights. Release of the X-15 from NB-52A took place at an altitude of about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) (45,000 feet) and

1827-524: The X-15's wreckage across 50 square miles (130 km ). On 8   May 2004, a monument was erected at the cockpit's locale, near Johannesburg, California . Major Adams was posthumously awarded Air Force astronaut wings for his final flight in X-15-3, which had reached an altitude of 50.4 miles (81.1 km). In 1991, his name was added to the Astronaut Memorial . The second plane, X-15-2,

1890-433: The blunt end at the rear of the X-15 could produce as much drag as an entire F-104 Starfighter . A wedge shape was used because it is more effective than the conventional tail as a stabilizing surface at hypersonic speeds. A vertical-tail area equal to 60 percent of the wing area was required to give the X-15 adequate directional stability. Stability at hypersonic speeds was aided by side panels that could be extended from

1953-639: The breakup of such holding companies. North American became a manufacturing company, run by James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger , who had been recruited from Douglas Aircraft Company . NAA did retain ownership of Eastern Air Lines until 1938. In 1933, the General Motors Corporation purchased a controlling interest in NAA, and merged it with the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation , but retained

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2016-417: The center stick. In addition to pilot input, the X-15 " Stability Augmentation System " (SAS) sent inputs to the aerodynamic controls to help the pilot maintain attitude control . The Reaction Control System (RCS) could be operated in two modes – manual and automatic. The automatic mode used a feature called "Reaction Augmentation System" (RAS) that helped stabilize the vehicle at high altitude. The RAS

2079-401: The commercial SpaceShipOne , another spaceplane with a flight profile comparable to the X-15's. Following this in 2005, NASA retroactively awarded its civilian astronaut wings to Dana (then living), and to McKay and Walker (posthumously). Forrest S. Petersen, the only Navy pilot in the X-15 program, never took the aircraft above the requisite altitude and thus never earned astronaut wings. Of

2142-517: The courtroom in the absence of the jury. The account of the actual crime lacks most of the dramatics of the overnight hostage situation at the Courtier home in the film and suggests that the Courtiers were under far less force and coercion than portrayed in the film. The record does not mention any gunfight or violence during the kidnappers' apprehension of Courtier and occupation of his home. In

2205-603: The election over the International Association of Machinists and represented all the employees at the North American factory in Inglewood, California. UAW negotiators demanded the starting pay be raised from 50 cents an hour to 75 cents, plus a 10 cents raise for the 11,000 current employees. The national union had made a no-strike pledge but suddenly a wildcat strike by the local on June 5 closed

2268-749: The exclusive development and production of the A-5 Vigilante , an advanced high speed attack aircraft that saw significant use as a naval reconnaissance aircraft during the Vietnam War , the OV-10 Bronco , the first aircraft specifically designed for forward air control (FAC), and counter-insurgency (COIN) duties, and the T-2 Buckeye Naval trainer, which would serve from the late 1950s until 2008 and be flown in training by virtually every Naval Aviator and Naval Flight Officer in

2331-482: The first time on 25   June 1964. It reached its maximum speed of 4,520 miles per hour (7,274 km/h) in October 1967 with pilot William "Pete" Knight of the U.S. Air Force in control. Five principal aircraft were used during the X-15 program: three X-15 planes and two modified "nonstandard" NB-52 bombers: Additionally, F-100 , F-104 and F5D chase aircraft and C-130 and C-47 transports supported

2394-418: The gang on the phone line long enough for a successful trace to be performed. The police swarm the area, and a shootout occurs near a phone booth in a deserted industrial area, Batsford and Gossett are wounded and Courtier is safely reunited with his wife. The crime that became the basis of The Night Holds Terror occurred on February 13, 1953. Eugene M. Courtier was an Edwards Air Force Base technician, and

2457-480: The highest speed ever recorded by a crewed, powered aircraft, which remains unbroken. During the X-15 program, 12   pilots flew a combined 199   flights. Of these, 8   pilots flew a combined 13   flights which met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of 50 miles (80 km), thus qualifying these pilots as being astronauts ; of those 13   flights, two (flown by

2520-440: The home of a nice young couple, with the expected panic and the usual hairbreadth hostage kidnapping at the end. Most of the cast are entirely unknown, except on television. And from start to finish, the picture remains a bare-handed, low-budget entry. The plucky Mr. Stone simply rolls up his sleeves and makes the most of what he has, with only a couple of mistakes." North American Aviation North American Aviation ( NAA )

2583-496: The kidnapping took place on a Lancaster, California highway. The sale of Courtier's car also took place in Lancaster. The criminals, Leonard Daniel Mahan, James Bartley Carrigan and Don Eugene Hall, were tried and convicted. During the trial, Mahan requested but was denied a mistrial because the judge failed to instruct the jury to disregard any description of an incident in which Courtier and his father physically attacked Mahan in

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2646-403: The main engines and auxiliary power units (APUs). Additional tanks for helium and liquid nitrogen performed other functions; the fuselage interior was purged with helium gas, and liquid nitrogen was used as coolant for various systems. The X-15 had a thick wedge tail to enable it to fly in a steady manner at hypersonic speeds. This produced a significant amount of base drag at lower speeds;

2709-408: The money to them. But because the auto dealer cannot pay such a large sum so late in the day, the gang leaves with Courtier and retreats to the family home in a suburban neighborhood. The gang's plan is to spend the night there, accompany Courtier in the morning to collect his money and then flee. The gang terrorizes Courtier, his wife Doris and their two young children over the course of the night. In

2772-424: The morning, Courtier and the gang successfully collect the money from the auto dealer. Before Courtier can be murdered on a desert turnoff, Logan, who does not want to be involved in murder, first tells Courtier to get ready to make a run for it if they take the turnoff, then comes up with the idea that they instead hold him for ransom because his father owns a chain of stores. He tells Courtier that this will give him

2835-460: The name North American Aviation. Kindelberger moved the company's operations from Dundalk, Maryland to Los Angeles, California , which allowed flying year-round, and decided to focus on training aircraft, on the theory that it would be easier than trying to compete with established companies on larger projects. NAA's first planes were the GA-15 observation plane and the GA-16 trainer, followed by

2898-584: The plant that produced a fourth of the fighters. The UAW national leader Richard Frankensteen flew in but was unable to get the workers to return. So Washington intervened. With the approval of national CIO leadership, President Franklin Roosevelt on June 8 sent in the California national guard to reopen the plant with bayonets. Strikers were told to return immediately or be drafted into the US Army. They sullenly complied. However, when Germany suddenly invaded

2961-408: The program Ninety Seconds to Space to describe the total powered flight time of the aircraft. The X-15 reaction control system (RCS), for maneuvering in the low-pressure/density environment, used high-test peroxide (HTP), which decomposes into water and oxygen in the presence of a catalyst and could provide a specific impulse of 140 s (1.4 km/s). The HTP also fueled a turbopump for

3024-458: The program. The 200th flight over Nevada was first scheduled for 21   November 1968, to be flown by William "Pete" Knight. Numerous technical problems and outbreaks of bad weather delayed this proposed flight six times, and it was permanently canceled on 20   December 1968. This X-15 (56-6670) was detached from the B-52 and then put into indefinite storage. The aircraft was later donated to

3087-408: The program. In the event of ejection, the seat was designed to deploy fins, which were used until it reached a safer speed/altitude at which to deploy its main parachute. Pilots wore pressure suits, which could be pressurized with nitrogen gas. Above 35,000 feet (11 km) altitude, the cockpit was pressurized to 3.5 psi (24 kPa; 0.24 atm) with nitrogen gas, while oxygen for breathing

3150-410: The rocket engine throttle and a control for jettisoning the ventral tail fin. Other features of the cockpit included heated windows to prevent icing and a forward headrest for periods of high deceleration. The X-15 had an ejection seat designed to operate at speeds up to Mach 4 (4,500 km/h; 2,800 mph) and/or 120,000 feet (37 km) (23 miles) altitude, although it was never used during

3213-525: The same civilian pilot) met the FAI definition (100 kilometres (62 mi)) of outer space . The 5   Air Force pilots qualified for military astronaut wings immediately, while the 3   civilian pilots were eventually awarded NASA astronaut wings in 2005, 35   years after the last X-15 flight. The X-15 was based on a concept study from Walter Dornberger for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) of

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3276-601: The tail to increase the overall surface area, and these panels doubled as air brakes. Before 1958, United States Air Force (USAF) and NACA officials discussed an orbital X-15 spaceplane , the X-15B that would launch into outer space from atop an SM-64 Navaho missile. This was canceled when the NACA became NASA and adopted Project Mercury instead. By 1959, the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar space-glider program

3339-554: The ventral fin , which required the pilot to jettison the lower fin just before landing. The lower fin was recovered by parachute. The X-15 was the product of developmental research, and changes were made to various systems over the course of the program and between the different models. The X-15 was operated under several different scenarios, including attachment to a launch aircraft, drop, main engine start and acceleration, ballistic flight into thin air/space, re-entry into thicker air, unpowered glide to landing, and direct landing without

3402-697: Was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter , the B-25 Mitchell bomber , the F-86 Sabre jet fighter, the X-15 rocket plane , the XB-70 bomber, the B-1 Lancer , the Apollo command and service module , the second stage of the Saturn V rocket , and

3465-549: Was an unpowered glide flight by Scott Crossfield , on 8   June 1959. Crossfield also piloted the first powered flight on 17   September 1959, and his first flight with the XLR-99 rocket engine on 15   November 1960. Twelve test pilots flew the X-15. Among these were Neil Armstrong , later a NASA astronaut and the first man to set foot on the Moon, and Joe Engle , later a commander of NASA Space Shuttle missions. In

3528-680: Was developed as a ground attack aircraft and dive bomber. This was done, in part, to keep the airframe in production as the US Army Air Corps had not yet decided to purchase the type as a fighter. A suggestion by the RAF that North American switch the P-51's powerplant from its original Allison engine to the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine may have been one of the most significant events in World War II aviation, as it transformed

3591-654: Was eventually merged with the Rocketdyne division in 1978. Autonetics began in 1945 at North American's Technical Research Laboratory, a small unit in the Los Angeles Division's engineering department based in Downey, California . The evolution of the Navaho missile program resulted in the establishment of Autonetics as a separate division of North American Aviation in 1955, first located in Downey, later moving to Anaheim, California in 1963. The division

3654-639: Was eventually sold by Boeing to UTC Pratt & Whitney in 2005. UTC later sold Rocketdyne to Aerojet ( GenCorp ) in 2013. North American X-15 The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft . The X-15 set speed and altitude records in

3717-533: Was fed separately to the pilot. The initial 24 powered flights used two Reaction Motors XLR11 liquid-propellant rocket engines, enhanced to provide a total of 16,000 pounds-force (71 kN) of thrust as compared to the 6,000 pounds-force (27 kN) that a single XLR11 provided in 1947 to make the Bell X-1 the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound . The XLR11 used ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen . By November 1960, Reaction Motors delivered

3780-516: Was involved in the development of guidance systems for the Minuteman ballistic missile system. In 1955, the rocket engine operations were spun off into a separate division as Rocketdyne . This division furnished engines for the Redstone , Jupiter , Thor , Delta , and Atlas missiles, and for NASA 's Saturn family of launch vehicles . North American designed and built the airframe for

3843-424: Was rebuilt after a landing accident on 9   November 1962 which damaged the craft and injured its pilot, John McKay . The new plane renamed X-15A-2 , had a new 28 -in. fuselage extension to carry liquid hydrogen. It was lengthened by 2.4 feet (73 cm), had a pair of auxiliary fuel tanks attached beneath its fuselage and wings, and a complete heat-resistant ablative coating was added. It took flight for

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3906-509: Was to become the USAF's preferred means for launching military crewed spacecraft into orbit. This program was canceled in the early 1960s before an operational vehicle could be built. Various configurations of the Navaho were considered, and another proposal involved a Titan I stage. Three X-15s were built, flying 199   test flights, the last on 24   October 1968. The first X-15 flight

3969-466: Was typically used for approximately three minutes of an X-15 flight before automatic power off. The alternative control setup used the MH-96 flight control system, which allowed one joystick in place of three and simplified pilot input. The MH-96 could automatically blend aerodynamic and rocket controls, depending on how effective each system was at controlling the aircraft. Among the many controls were

#198801