THE NEW YORK TIMES, March 8, 1961

• U.S. Air Force Major Robert M. White
• Rocket powered North American X-15  jet
• 1st time Mach 4 achieved - 4x speed of sound

The front page has a four column heading: "X-15 Flies 2,650 M.P.H., Cracking Record" with subhead and photo. (see images) Another photo of White on page 16.
Complete with 68 pages, light toning and a little wear at the margin, more so along the top, right margin, generally nice.

Background: On March 7, 1961, U.S. Air Force Major Robert M. "Bob" White piloted the rocket-powered North American X-15 (Flight 2-13-26) to a historic top speed of Mach 4.43 (2,905 mph / 4,675 km/h) at an altitude of 77,450 feet after being drop-launched from a B-52 mother ship over Edwards Air Force Base. This mission was groundbreaking as it marked the very first time a piloted aircraft surpassed Mach 4, pushing experimental aviation into the hypersonic flight regime using the newly installed, high-thrust XLR99 rocket engine. The flight's ultimate significance lay in validating high-speed atmospheric flight control and gathering critical aerodynamic heating and thermal resistance data, providing foundational engineering insights that directly benefited NASA's Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spaceflight programs as well as future spaceplane designs.