This flight put that belief forever to rest. At the time, many feared that supersonic flight was impossible because of an invisible “barrier” that could destroy aircraft. He named the aircraft Glamorous Glennis in honor of his wife. A World War II ace with 11 victories, the West Virginia native was a superb pilot with an innate understanding of machines and the rare ability to convey his feel for subjective flight characteristics into performance data for the engineers monitoring his flights. Charles Yeager was chosen to fly the Bell X-1 as he was the Air Force’s most experienced test pilot. The data gathered during the X-1 program were immediately applied to a new generation of high-performance combat aircraft, such as the North American F-100, America’s first supersonic fighter, during the early years of the Cold War.Ĭapt. A four-chambered Reaction Motors, Inc., XLR-11-RM-3 rocket engine provided 26,500 newtons (6,000 pounds) of static thrust. 50 caliber bullet, because high-powered bullets were stable at supersonic speeds. To overcome dangerous aerodynamic forces, the X-1 had extremely thin yet strong wings and a minutely adjustable horizontal stabilizer to improve control. It was the first of a series of “X” experimental piloted and unpiloted projects that continue to this day.īell X-1 Glamorous Glennis aircraft captured during flight. The X-1 program gathered crucial flight data about transonic and supersonic flight for the Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA’s predecessor. The Bell X-1 flew 78 times-as fast as Mach 1.45 and as high as 21,900 meters (71,900 feet). The world’s first piloted supersonic flight had lasted 14 minutes from release from the B-29 to landing. After flying under power from the XLR-11 rocket engine for 20 seconds, Yeager cut the power and glided down to the lakebed for a safe landing. The transition to supersonic flight was remarkably uneventful. 965 to Mach 1.06-faster than the speed of sound. On this, the ninth powered flight of the X-1, the Mach meter jumped from Mach. ![]() Engineers had recently upgraded the aircraft’s adjustable stabilizer allowing Yeager to make instantaneous incremental changes in the angle of attack which smoothed out the airflow as the aircraft approached the speed of sound maintaining elevator effectiveness. Early attempts had confronted severe aerodynamic buffeting as the X-1 approached the speed of sound, which threatened the success of the program. Air launched from the bomb bay of a Boeing B-29 bomber after a 30-minute climb to 20,000 feet above Rogers Dry Lake in the southern California desert, the X-1 used its rocket engine to climb to its test altitude of 42,000 feet and began its test run. The experimental purpose-built aircraft reached 1,127 kilometers (700 miles) per hour (Mach 1.06). “Chuck” Yeager, became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1). Seventy-five years ago, on October 14, 1947, the Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis, piloted by U.S.
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