Page 6 - The Future of Aerospace is X - X-Planes 2021

X-1, from 4
and all data as Top Secret two hours After Yeager’s Mach 1 flight, the picked up the Air Force’s canceled
later. X-1-1 had been used by the Air Force X-1-3.
However, the story of Yeager’s to acquire data on stability and con- The X-1-3 was delivered to Ed-
Oct. 14 flight was leaked to a report- trol, wing and tail loading, high-alti- wards in April 1951. Bell test pilot
er from the magazine Aviation Week, tude flight, and pilot familiarization. Joseph Cannon successfully made
and the Los Angeles Times featured After a final flight by Yeager on May a glide flight in the aircraft on July
the story as headline news in their 12, 1950, the X-1-1 was retired and 20. On Nov. 9, 1951, a captive flight
Dec. 22 issue. The magazine story given to the Smithsonian Institution. was made by the X-1-3 aboard the
was released on Dec. 20. The Air The X-1-2 continued flying, but tech- B-50 launch aircraft. This was to
Force threatened legal action against nical problems brought its work to a be a rehearsal for the first powered
the journalists who revealed the sto- close. The X-1-1 and X-1-2 both used flight, as well as a test of the jetti-
ry, but none ever occurred. The news a fuel system pressurized with nitro- soning system. Engineers canceled
of a straight-wing supersonic aircraft gen. The X-1-2s nitrogen tanks were the jettisoning tests, however, when
surprised many American experts nearing the end of their fatigue life, nitrogen pressure fell. The B-50, with
who, like their German counterparts risking a possible explosion. Conse- the fully fueled X-1-3 still attached,
during World War II, believed that quently, NACA officials grounded landed back at Edwards safely, and
a swept-wing design was necessary the X-1-2, which later returned in a preparations began to jettison the
to break the sound barrier. On June much-modified state as the X-1E. LOX. As Cannon pressurized the
10, 1948, Air Force Secretary Stuart The X-1-3 (serial number 46-064) LOX tank, however, a dull thud was
Symington announced that the sound represented the final example of first heard, followed by a hiss. A small
barrier had been repeatedly broken generation X-1 series. The X-1-3 was cloud of white vapor escaped from
by two experimental airplanes. NASA photograph externally identical to the other two the X-1-3’s center section. Then,
NACA now began flying the X-1-2 Bell X-1-3, aircraft #46-064, being mated to the B-50 mothership for a captive aircraft. The fuel system in the X-1- a violent explosion occurred, with
on research missions. flight test on Nov. 9, 1951. While being de-fueled after this flight, it exploded, 3 did not rely on nitrogen pressure, yellow flames and black smoke en-
On Oct. 21, 1947, NACA pilot destroying itself and the B-50, and seriously burning Bell test pilot Joe Cannon. however, but rather on a turbopump. gulfing both the X-1-3 and the B-50.
X-1-3 had completed only a single glide-flight on July 20.
Herbert H. Hoover made a glide This eliminated the need for the Cannon escaped from the X-1-3, but
flight. Hoover followed this mission heavy nitrogen tanks, and resulted spent nearly a year in the hospital
on Dec. 16 with a powered flight to personic flight. Lilly flew at Mach 1.1 October 1950, when he left NACA in a calculated maximum speed of recovering from severe burns on his
Mach 0.84. In January 1948, a sec- on March 31. for a job as a company test pilot. Mach 2.4, a full Mach number higher legs, arms, and body. The fire and
ond NACA research pilot, Howard A. Scott Crossfield joined the re- than the X-1-1 or X-1-2 could reach. subsequent explosions destroyed
C. Lilly, joined the program. The Robert A. Champine replaced search efforts in April 1951, followed Funding cuts and turbopump devel- both the X-1-3 and B-50.
initial NACA flights in the aircraft Hoover and Lilly on the X-1 pro- by Joe Walker in August. opment problems, however, delayed
sought data on turns and pull ups, gram in November 1948, undertaking The research usefulness of the first the aircraft a full three years. The Air Variants
side slips, and elevator effectiveness studies of wing pressure distribution, generation X-1 aircraft was nearing Force had also contracted with Bell Later variants of the X-1 were built
at subsonic speeds. It was not until stability and control, and stabilizer an end. Aircraft to develop the second gener- to test different aspects of supersonic
March 4, 1948, that Hoover reached effectiveness. John H. Griffith con- The second generation X-1 air- ation X-1A, X-1B and X-1D. Interest flight. One of these, the X-1A, with
Mach 1.029. Hoover became the tinued these research efforts when he craft, then under development, would in the X-1-3 faded, and the Air Force Yeager at the controls, inadvertently
second man to reach Mach 1, on the replaced Champine on the X-1 pro- be able to reach twice the speed of canceled it. NACA, wanting its own demonstrated a very dangerous char-
first NACA and the first civilian su- gram. Griffith flew the X-1-2 through sound. Mach 2 aircraft to experiment with, See X-1, Page 7

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