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| Keywords: X-1A in flight with flight data superimposed DVIDS706597.jpg en This photo of the X-1A includes graphs of the flight data from Maj Charles E Yeager's Mach 2 44 flight on December 12 1953 This was only a few days short of the 50th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight After reaching Mach 2 44 then the highest speed ever reached by a piloted aircraft the X-1A tumbled completely out of control The motions were so violent that Yeager cracked the plastic canopy with his helmet He finally recovered from a inverted spin and landed on Rogers Dry Lakebed Among the data shown are Mach number and altitude the two top graphs The speed and altitude changes due to the tumble are visible as jagged lines The third graph from the bottom shows the G-forces on the airplane During the tumble these twice reached 8 Gs or 8 times the normal pull of gravity at sea level At these G forces a 200-pound human would in effect weigh 1 600 pounds if a scale were placed under him in the direction of the force vector Producing these graphs was a slow difficult process The raw data from on-board instrumentation recorded on oscillograph film Human computers then reduced the data and recorded it on data sheets correcting for such factors as temperature and instrument errors They used adding machines or slide rules for their calculations pocket calculators being 20 years in the future Three second generation Bell Aircraft Corporations X-1s were built though four were requested They were the X-1A 48-1384 ; X-1B 48-1385 ; X-1C canceled and never built ; X-1D 48-1386 These aircraft were similar to the X-1s except they were five feet longer had conventional canopies and were powered by Reaction Motors Inc XLR11-RM-5 rocket engines The RM-5 like the previous engines had no throttle and was controlled by igniting one or more of the four thrust chambers at will The original program outline called for the X-1A and X-1B to be used for dynamic stability and air loads investigations The X-1D was to be used for heat transfer research while the X-1C was intended as a high-speed armament systems test bed All of these aircraft like the original X-1s were launched from a Boeing B-29 or Boeing B-50 mothership to take maximum advantage of their limited flying time with a rocket engine Most launches were made from the JTB-29A 45-21800 The other launch aircraft was EB-50A 46-006 X-1A The Bell X-1A was similar to the Bell X-1 except for having turbo-driven fuel pumps instead of a system using nitrogen under pressure a new cockpit canopy longer fuselage and increased fuel capacity The X-1A arrived at Edwards Air Force Base California on January 7 1953 with the first glide flight being successfully completed by Bell pilot Jean Skip Ziegler The airplane also made five powered flights with Ziegler at the controls The USAF was attempting a Mach 2 flight and USAF test pilot Charles Chuck Yeager was eager He reached speed of Mach 2 435 at a altitude of 75 000 feet on December 12 1953 a speed record at the time But all was not well the aircraft encountered an inertial coupling phenomenon and went out of control Once the X-1A had entered the denser atmosphere 35 000 feet it slowly stabilized and Yeager was able to return to Edwards The aircraft had experienced high-speed roll-coupling something aerodynamicists had predicted but this was the first actual encounter On August 26 1954 Major Arthur Murray USAF test pilot flew the X-1A to an altitude record of 90 440 feet NACA High-Speed Flight Station received the aircraft in September 1954 and returned it to Bell for the installation of an ejection seat NACA test pilot Joseph Walker made a familiarization flight on July 20 1955 followed by another scheduled flight on August 8 1955 Shortly before launch the X-1A suffered an explosion The extent of the damage prohibited landing the crippled aircraft The X-1A was jettisoned into the desert exploding and burning on impact Walker and the B-29 crew returned to base in satisfactory condition Four pilots had completed 29 flights including aborts X-1B The Bell Aircraft Corporation X-1B was similar to the Bell X-1A except for the installation of wingtips extensions for its last three flight The NACA portion of the X-1B flight test program was for the purpose of aerodynamic heating research accumulating data during 1956-1958 The X-1B was fitted with special instrumentation for exploratory aerodynamic heating tests It had over 300 thermocouples installed on it It was the first aircraft to fly with a reaction control system a prototype of the control system used on the X-15 and other piloted aircraft Midway through its flight test program the X-1B was equipped with an Reaction Motors Inc XLR-11-RM-9 engine which differed from the other XLR-11s only in having an electric spark low-tension interrupter type ignition in place of the older high-tension type On January 27 1959 the X-1B was given to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Ohio for preservation and public display This aircraft completed a total of 27 glide and powered flights made by eight USAF test pilots and two NACA test pilots X-1C Following the X-1B was the projected X-1C which was canceled while still in the mock-up stage The birth of transonic and supersonic-capable aircraft like the North American F-86 Sabre and the North American F-100 Super Sabre eventually eliminated the need for the X-1C X-1D The X-1D was the first advanced model of the X-1 family to roll from Bell Aircraft Corporation's plant It arrived at Edwards California in July 1951 suspended from the bomb bay shackles of a Boeing EB-50A 46-006 aircraft On July 24 1951 with Bell test pilot Jean Skip Ziegler at the controls the X-1D had the only successful flight of its career It was an unpowered glide flight and on landing the nose gear failed with the plane sliding to a stop The aircraft was repaired and ready once more for flight when USAF test pilot Frank Pete Everest boarded the aircraft for launch on August 22 1951 The drop from the Boeing B-50 was canceled because of mechanical problems On the way back to the landing field and after the crew had jettisoned the propellants an explosion occurred with flames being reported by the chase plane pilot The X-1D was dropped to crash on the desert near the south end of Rogers Dry Lakebed The second generation Bell Aircraft Corporations X-1s increased man's understanding of the stability and control characteristics and aerodynamic heating at high-speeds and the environment of high-altitude flight INVESTIGATION Since there had been a loss of several aircraft during the period of the rocket flights the NACA instituted an investigation It sent samples of a suspicious looking oily residue from a liquid oxygen tank to a Los Angeles California laboratory and to the chemical laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base California The Edwards laboratory identified the substance as TCP--tricresyl phosphate--a substance used to impregnate leather All the destroyed rocket planes--as well as those still flying--had gaskets made of Ulmer leather The TCP had been the culprit because it could easily detonate in the presence of liquid oxygen Armed with this knowledge the Air Force and the NACA avoided all future catastrophic blasts NASA Identifier NIX-E-24911 2009-09-23 Glenn Research Center https //www dvidshub net/image/706597 706597 2012-10-10 16 00 WASHINGTON DC US PD-USGov Aircraft at Rogers Dry Lake Images from DoD uploaded by Fæ Bell X-1 | ||||
