107 feet of fire-breathing titanium

Cool

One of the best stories Maj. Shul told was listening to a Cessna and an F-18 asking for a ground speed check. Of course they had to ask for one also. Can't duplicate it here, but I'm sure you can look it up on Google. Hilarious story.

I bought his book in late 1992 at some event where he autographed it. Now they're $300 and up, if you can find them. A great book, with gorgeous photography by the author.

Incredible ! I love reading about it in my Chalet by the sea in SRI LANKA.

They were always a sight to see when flying around Okinawa. At night, some missions had the flight path over the base I was stationed at 5 miles from Kadena. All you would often see was the bottom rotating beacon as well as 2 blue-white cones of fire flying overhead about 20,000'. I was so surprised that the hanger for them was located so close to the main road up the west side of the island.

Fabulous aircraft but wasn't the X-15 the fastest plane in history ?

Very nice... Great article. Thanks for sharing.

It was and is an incredible plane, and the entire history of the program is right out of Mission, Impossible.
Stated and/or published top speed that I have seen are well below actual speeds I personally witnessed while clandestinely tracking a training flight from western Idaho over the Pacific. Any such tracking, btw, was strictly forbidden.
Because -71 flights were only loosely monitored, I have to wonder just how far some pilot somewhere might have pushed the throttles?

It didn't "breathe fire". It took in air and combined it with fuel. The fire came out the other end.

I love that one and was just as grand reading it again!!

Amazing description of a near miss tragedy and the way Shul admits his almost fatal error paint him as the real hero he is.