Test Flights: Beyond the Limits

Flights of Discovery (1x1)

Air date: Dec 31, 1998

Witness the cutting edge of space research. Take a front row seat on the runway at Dryden Flight Research Center as pilots attempt to flight test the X-33's radical new "linear aerospike" rocket engine on the world's highest and fastest aircraft, the SR-71 Blacbird. It's highly explosive ! It's high risk ! It's high adventure ! Plus meet the early pioneers whose heroic flights blazed the trail for today's modern day explorers by taking on the challenges of the X-15 and the Lifting Body, the prototype for a wingless aircraft that could fly into space and back.