File:Chuck_Yeager.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Also known as Bell X-1
1946 experimental aircraft model by Bell
Key facts
- Type
- Experimental rocket plane
- National origin
- United States
- Manufacturer
- Bell Aircraft
- Status
- Retired
- Primary users
- United States Air Force National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
- First flight
- 19 January 1946
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Bell X-1 in flight.jpg
- Height
- 3.3
- Length
- 9.4
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Bell X-1
- Commons gallery
- Bell X-1
- first flight
- 1946-01-19
- inception
- 1945-00-00
- wingspan
- 8.5
- native label
- Bell X-1
- wing area
- 12
Sources (8)
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Article
The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics–U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived during 1944 and designed and built in 1945, it achieved a speed of nearly 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 km/h; 870 kn) in 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) in 1954. The X-1 aircraft #46-062, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis and flown by Chuck Yeager, was the first piloted airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight and was the first of the X-planes, a series of American experimental rocket planes (and non-rocket planes) designed for testing new technologies.
Design and development