When you walk into National Air
& Space Museum, on the Mall in Washington D.C., you look up and to the right and see the orange yellow
aircraft. Most Airplane Geeks know
that is the BELL XS-1. The XS-1 or X-1 was the first aircraft, to officially,
go faster than the speed of sound.
Glamorous Glennis, 46-062,
besides being the first aircraft to go to Mach 1, also has another secret
record most people do not know.
It’s most famous pilot Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager also
shares that record with 6062.
After 103 flights of the three
X-1s it was decided that a conventional take off would be tested.
6062 was given up rated tires,
strengthened the landing gear and new breaks. It also was fueled very precisely to maintain the aircrafts
balance. The aircraft was only
given 50% of the fuel that was the normal load.
The X-1 was towed to the end of
the runway. Yeager lit all
four of the XLR-11 chambers and release breaks. 6062 roared down the runway pulled up and climbed like
the rocket it was. 90 seconds
later the aircraft had reached 23,000 feet and Mach 1.03. Yeager then shut off the motors
and began the glide back to Muroc Dry Lake, dumping the remainder of the fuel.
While the flight lasted less than ten minutes its still is
still on the record books. That
flight is the only flight of a rocket powered X Plane that began and ended with
a conventional take off.
Works Cited
Guenther, Ben, and J. D. Miller. Bell X-1 Variants. Arlington, TX: Aerofax, 1988. 8. Print.
"List of X-1 Flights." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 05 Jan. 2013.
What a fabulous bit of history. I did not know that other secret either- Go Chuck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I didn’t know that January 5 is an important date to remember in Aviation history.
ReplyDeletePretty amazing to thing how far aviation has come in such a short period of time!
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