In the 1940s and 1950s the unofficial motto for flight researchers was "higher and faster." By the late 1950s the last frontier of that goal was hypersonic flight to the edge of space. Reaching this challenging goal would require a huge leap in aeronautical technology, life support systems and flight planning.

Reacting to this goal, John V. Becker and his team at NASA Langley set out to meet this challenge. The resulting work from this team led to the development of the revolutionary X-15 aircraft. This amazing aircraft not only went on to break speed and altitude records, but helped usher in the space age.

Additional Information
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/PAO/PAIS/HTML/FS-031-DFRC.html