In article ,
Mary Shafer wrote:

You misunderstand. If carrying a crew of three in the X-15 had been
necessary, the X-15 would have been designed to do so from the
beginning. The X-Prize contenders knew that they had to carry three,
so the vehicles are designed to do so.

The only way they could have managed to design the X-15 to carry three
people was, well, they did that with the Dyna-Soar.

Saying that the X-15 can't meet the X-Prize rules, promulgated four
decades after the X-15 was designed, is an irrational statement.

Nope, claiming that it *could* meet the X-Prize rules is an irrational
statement. Telling someone it couldn't is what we use to *counter* that
guy's statement.

The X-15 was a very significant and important craft. We're still taking
advantage of the things it taught us. It was not an Arndt-like
ubercraft that could do anything if you added pieces on or redefined the
problems 40 years later.

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