We talked with people who worked on the test flights with Neil at Edwards Air Force Base, and they showed us diagrams and records from the test flight.
In some respects, that X-15 flight is just as remarkable an achievement as the moon landing was.
The plane still holds speed and altitude records for piloted flights 50 years later, and Neil’s flight was the longest of all the test flights done with that craft.
I got to try out a simulator that really felt like a fancy video game but gave me a great idea of what it was like to try to land one of these planes.