xlr11

Obviously a great publicity shot of some of the team involved with breaking the sound barrier over Muroc AAF in Oct 1947 in front of Bell X-1 No. 2 (46-063) and the B-29 mother ship. Think then-Captain Chuck Yeager is second from right (kneeling). Wow.

The Bell X-1, designated originally as XS-1, was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics-U.S. Army Air Forces-U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by the Bell Aircraft Company. Conceived during 1944 and designed and built during 1945, it achieved a speed of nearly 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 km/h; 870 kn) during 1948. A derivative of this same design, the Bell X-1A, having greater fuel capacity and hence longer rocket burning time, exceeded 1,600 miles per hour (2,600 km/h; 1,400 kn) during 1954. The X-1 was the first manned airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight and was the first of the so-called X-planes, a series of American experimental rocket planes designated for testing of new technologies and often kept secret

This a/c is now displayed at the NMUSAF in Dayton, OH. As per the NMUSAF website: "The XF-91, a high-speed experimental interceptor, was America's first rocket-powered combat-type fighter to fly faster than the speed of sound. The airplane had a number of unusual design features -- an inverse taper wing (wider at the tips than at the roots), a variable incidence wing that could be varied in flight (high angle of attack for takeoff and landing and low angle of attack for high-speed flight), a main landing gear that retracted outward with the tandem wheels being housed in the wing tips, and a rocket engine that augmented the standard jet engine to provide an outstanding rate of climb. The airplane made its first flight on May 9, 1949. Numerous other test flights were made, providing valuable research data, but the airplane was not put into production because it did not carry sufficient fuel for a flight of longer than 25 minutes and did not incorporate the latest type of fire control system. The XF-91 on display was transferred to the museum from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in May 1955. Engine: General Electric J47 of 6,700 lbs. thrust with afterburner and Reaction Motors rocket of 6,000 lbs. thrust."