Name: NASA Research Pilot Neil Armstrong after his first X-15 flight, November 30, 1960
Brand: NASA
Price: 2000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

NASA / Unidentified Photographer

NASA Research Pilot Neil Armstrong following his first flight with a X-15 experimental rocketplane at NASA’s Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base

November 30, 1960

Vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA caption numbered “60-X-35” on the verso
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.
Specified lots are being stored at Crozier Park Royal (details below) or will be removed from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London, SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. If the lot has been transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection from 12.00pm on the second business day following the sale. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie Manson & Woods Ltd

Brought to you by

Lot Essay

[NASA caption] X-15 Pilot Neil Armstrong of NASA, one of six pilots assigned to the X-15 research project, is shown beside the airplane following a recent flight. At left is the airplane’s attitude sensor or “hot nose” which will aid the X-15 during critical exit and reentry periods by indicating attitude angles.

Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (later NASA’s Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH) in 1955. Later that year, he transferred to the NACA’s High-Speed Flight Station in Edwards, CA, as an aeronautical research scientist and then as a NASA aeronautical research pilot. Armstrong made his first X-15 flight on November 30, 1960, and his second on December 9, 1960. These were the first X-15 flights to use the ball nose, which provided accurate measurement of air speed and flow angle at supersonic and hypersonic speeds.

X-15 pilot Milt Thompson once stated that Armstrong was “the most technically capable of the early X-15 pilots”. While his colleague Bill Dana noted that Armstrong “had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge”.

In 1962, Armstrong was one of nine NASA astronauts in the second class to be chosen.