The need for speed - Pics from AW&ST

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  The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a very different beast from the big-money, bureaucratic, politicized jobs machine that its successor, NASA, turned into within a decade of its establishment. The old NACA was first through Mach 1, Mach 2 and Mach 3, and its final triumph was the North American Aviation X-15, deliberately designed as a bridge between the airplane and a reusable spacecraft.

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  NASA

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Trying to design, build and fly the world’s fastest airplane is a challenge that has brought out the genius in aerospace engineers and has occasionally tapped a vein of risk-taking eccentricity. This selection of some of the triumphs, disasters and mysteries in the pursuit of speed as part of a series of special Centennial editions to mark the 100th anniversary of Aviation Week & Space Technology.