The book, Aeronautics: I Fly The X-15, represents an article excerpted from the September, 1962 National Geographic Magazine issue (Volume 122 Pages 428 - 450).  In this article, the author chronicles the history of X-15 which is half aircraft and half missile.  The X-15 was jointly test flown by N.A.S.A., United States Air Force and United States Navy pilots in order to gather much needed data for the United States manned space program.  This unique aircraft was air launched from a modified Boeing B-52 Stratafortress.  Once free of the mother ship, the X-15 would ignite its rocket motor which would propel it to the outer fringes of the Earth's atmosphere.  Shortly thereafter, the rocket motor would be turned off and the X-15 would descend back through the Earth's atmosphere and glide to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base.  In many ways, the X-15 was the true forerunner to the modern space shuttle.  The original article highlighted the development and test flights of the experimental X-15 rocket plane in both a narrative and pictorial format.  This article includes the following: 1) Approximately 16 color photographs; 2) 4 vintage black and white photographs; 3) 2 color illustrations outlining a typical X-15 flight; 4) 1 color illustration of the X-15 cockpit and 5) 1 one page color illustration highlighting the main X-15 systems.  This excerpted publication of the original National Geographic Magazine article was produced with a special "hard-back" cover which was often acquired by schools for their libraries.  This example was purchased through a school book sale in Michigan, U.S.A. and has the original school rubber stamp on the cover.  This book is 22 pages and is in excellent condition.  The author is Joseph A. Walker with Dean Conger (photograpy).  Edition published in September, 1962.