X-1E and B-29 taxi and takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base

The first of the rocket-powered research aircraft, the X-1 (originally designated the XS-1), was a bullet-shaped airplane that was built by the Bell Aircraft Company for the US Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The mission of the X-1 was to investigate the transonic speed range (speeds from just below to just above the speed of sound) and, if possible, to break the "sound barrier".

The first of the three X-1s was glide-tested at Pinecastle Field, FL, in early 1946. The first powered flight of the X-1 was made on Dec. 9, 1946, at Muroc Army Air Field (later redesignated Edwards Air Force Base) with Chalmers Goodlin, a Bell test pilot,at the controls.

On Oct. 14, 1947, with USAF Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager as pilot, the aircraft flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time. Captain Yeager ignited the four-chambered XLR-11 rocket engines after being air-launched from under the bomb bay of a B-29 at 21,000 ft. The 6,000-lb thrust ethyl alcohol/liquid oxygen burning rockets, built by Reaction Motors, Inc., pushed him up to a speed of 700 mph in level flight.

Captain Yeager was also the pilot when the X-1 reached its maximum speed of 957 mph. Another USAF pilot. Lt. Col. Frank Everest, Jr., was credited with taking the X-1 to its maximum altitude of 71,902 ft. Eighteen pilots in all flew the X-1s. The number three plane was destroyed in a fire before evermaking any powered flights.

A single-place monoplane, the X-1 was 31 ft long, 10 ft high, and had a wingspan of 29 ft. It weighed 4,900 lb and carried 8,200 lb of fuel. It had a flush cockpit with a side entrance and no ejection seat.

This roughly 30-second video clip shows the X-1E landing on Rogers Dry Lakebed followed by the safety chase aircraft.

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[thumbcruncher]

I just placed some footage of the X-10 at Edwards (first flt) on my channel. In my research into the X-10 program I have found footage of the Ryan Vertijet and a flight of the X-1A with Yeager. I also have an early flight of the X-7. Do you think it would be worth my time to set them up for viewing on my channel?

[fairclought7]

the X-1 was almost a direct copy of the Miles M-52, the british government ordered Miles to give all their data an specs for the M-52 to the US as part of their war debt conditions including the all moving tail plane which makes supersonic flight possible