Open Access Highlights

Date

1946

Manufacturer

Bell Aircraft Corp.

Physical Description

Single engine, single seat, mid-wing rocket plane with international orange paint scheme.

Summary

On October 14, 1947, the Bell X-1 became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. Piloted by U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, the X-1 reached a speed of 1,127 kilometers (700 miles) per hour, Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 13,000 meters (43,000 feet). Yeager named the airplane "Glamorous Glennis" in tribute to his wife.

Air-launched at an altitude of 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) from the bomb bay of a Boeing B-29, the X-1 used its rocket engine to climb to its test altitude. It flew a total of 78 times, and on March 26, 1948, with Yeager at the controls, it attained a speed of 1,540 kilometers (957 miles) per hour, Mach 1.45, at an altitude of 21,900 meters (71,900 feet). This was the highest velocity and altitude reached by a manned airplane up to that time.

Long Description

On October 14, 1947, flying the Bell XS-1 #1, Capt. Charles 'Chuck’ Yeager, USAF, became the first pilot to fly faster than sound. The XS-1, later designated X-l, reached Mach 1.06, 700 mph, at an altitude of 43,000 feet, over the Mojave Desert near Muroc Dry Lake, California. The flight demonstrated that aircraft could be designed to fly faster than sound, and the concept of a ‘sound barrier" crumbled into myth.

The XS-1 was developed as part of a cooperative program initiated in 1944 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and the U.S. Army Air Forces (later the U.S. Air Force) to develop special manned transonic and supersonic research aircraft. On March 16, 1945, the Army Air Technical Service Command awarded the Bell Aircraft Corporation of Buffalo, New York, a contract to develop three transonic and supersonic research aircraft under project designation MX-653. The Army assigned the designation XS-1 for Experimental Sonic-i. Bell Aircraft built three rocket-powered XS-1 aircraft.

The National Air and Space Museum now owns the XS-1 #1, serial 46-062, named Glamorous Glennis by Captain Yeager in honor of his wife. The XS-1 #2 (46-063) was flight-tested by NACA and later was modified as the X-1 "Mach 24" research airplane. (The X-1 E is currently on exhibit outside the NASA Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.) The X-1 #3 (46-064) had a turbopump-driven, low-pressure fuel feed system. This aircraft, known popularly as the X-1-3 Queenie, was lost in a 1951 explosion on the ground that injured its pilot. Three additional X-1 aircraft, the X-1A, X-1B, and X-1D, were constructed and test-flown. Two of these. the X-1A and X-1D, were also lost, as a result of propulsion system explosions.

The two XS-1 aircraft were constructed from high-strength aluminum, with propellant tanks fabricated from steel. The first two XS-1 aircraft did not utilize turbopumps for fuel feed to the rocket engine, relying instead on direct nitrogen pressurization of the fuel-feed system. The smooth contours of the XS-1, patterned on the lines of a .50-caliber machine gun bullet, masked an extremely crowded fuselage containing two propellant tanks, twelve nitrogen spheres for fuel and cabin pressurization, the pilot’s pressurized cockpit, three pressure regulators, a retractable landing gear, the wing carry-through structure, a Reaction Motors, Inc., 6.000-pound-thrust rocket engine, and more than five hundred pounds of special flight-test instrumentation.

Though originally designed for conventional ground takeoffs, all X-1 aircraft were air-launched from Boeing B-29 or B-50 Superfortress aircraft. The performance penalties and safety hazards associated with operating rocket-propelled aircraft from the ground caused mission planners to resort to air-launching instead. Nevertheless, on January 5,1949, the X-1 #1 Glamorous Glennis successfully completed a ground takeoff from Muroc Dry Lake, piloted by Chuck Yeager. The maximum speed attained by the X-1 #1 was Mach 1.45 at 40,130 feet, approximately 957 mph, during a flight by Yeager on March 26, 1948. On August 8,1949, Maj. Frank K. Everest, Jr., USAF, reached an altitude of 71,902 feet, the highest flight made by the little rocket airplane. It continued flight test operations until mid-1950, by which time it had completed a total of nineteen contractor demonstration flights and fifty-nine Air Force test flights.

On August 26, 1950, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg presented the X-1 #1 to Alexander Wetmore, then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The X-1, General Vandenberg stated, "marked the end of the first great period of the air age, and the beginning of the second. In a few moments the subsonic period became history and the supersonic period was born." Earlier, Bell Aircraft President Lawrence D. Bell, NACA scientist John Stack, and Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager had received the 1947 Robert J. Collier Trophy for their roles in first exceeding the speed of sound and opening the pathway to practical supersonic flight.

Alternate Name

Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis

Key Accomplishment(s)

Broke the Sound Barrier

Impact or Innovation

The X-1 proved an aircraft could travel faster than sound and gathered transonic flight data that is still valuable.

Brief Description

On October 14, 1947, the Bell X-1 became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. It was piloted by U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager who named the aircraft Glamorous Glennis in tribute to his wife.

Country of Origin

United States of America

See more items in

National Air and Space Museum Collection

Location

National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC

Exhibition

Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall

Credit Line

Transferred from the Department of the Air Force

Data Source

National Air and Space Museum

Inventory Number

A19510007000

Type

CRAFT-Aircraft

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Materials

Aluminum, steel, glass, paint, foam, fabric, rubber, asbestos, magnesium, radium paint, plexi glass, leather

Dimensions

Other: 10 ft. 8 1/2 in. × 30 ft. 9 in. × 28 ft., 2780.5kg (326.4 × 937.3 × 853.4cm, 6130lb.)

Metadata Usage

CC0

Record ID

123-1581107138697-1581450540987-0

Date

1910s - 1920s

Manufactured by

Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, American, founded 1906

Subject of

Madam C.J. Walker, American, 1867 - 1919

Description

The canister is metal with yellow lacquer coloring its external surface. The outside of the canister is covered with textual and illustrative designs in black ink printed on top of the yellow lacquer. The product name [WONDERFUL HAIR GROWER] is written in horizontal text across the center of the lid beneath an ink illustration of a black woman pictured from her shoulders up with her hair down. Beneath the product name are additional lines of text which read [NET CONTENTS 2 OZ/MADE BY/THE MADAM C.J. WALKER/MANUFACTURING CO./INDIANAPOLIS, IND./PRICE 50 CENTS]. Above the illustration and curved to the arc of the lid edge is the brand name of the product in black text [MADAM C. J. WALKERS/TRADE MARK REGISTERED].

Transcription Center Status

Transcribed by digital volunteers

Place made

Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, United States, North and Central America

Topic

African American

Business

Hair

Women

See more items in

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification

Accessories and Personal Effects

Exhibition

Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation, 1876-1968

On View

NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Concourse 2, C 2053

Credit Line

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from Dawn Simon Spears and Alvin Spears, Sr.

Data Source

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Object number

2011.159.6

Type

canisters

Restrictions & Rights

No Known Copyright Restrictions

Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.

Medium

metal

Dimensions

Diameter: 2 3/4 × 13/16 in. (7 × 2.1 cm)

Metadata Usage

CC0

Record ID

123-1581107138697-1581459797925-0