It could even be argued that the X–15 pilots were a year or so ahead of the astronauts when it came to training for space flight. The Mercury training program had borrowed a lot of X–15 training—without flying. Each X–15 flight was so expensive—about $100,000, if you figured in the time and wages of all the support personnel—it was impractical to have a pilot use the X–15 itself for his basic training. Using the new piece of engineering technology, the computer, NASA built the first full-scale flight simulator. The realism of it was uncanny. Of course, they couldn’t simulate the g-forces of
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