October 24, 1968. The last flight of the X-15

The final flight of the fastest airplane ever built, the rocket propelled X-15, took place on this day, with the plane achieving Mach 5.38.

The North American X-15.

The plane was piloted by NASA pilot William Dana. NASA's logo can be seen on the side of the plane's fuselage in the photograph above.  The plane achieved altitudes of 50 miles high in some flights, qualifying the pilots of those flights for astronaut wings as the flights technically achieved space flight.