Breaking Barriers

It is 14 October 1947, in the still cool morning at Muroc Army Airfield the modified B-29 is positioned over the loading pit (a large trench in the ground that allows for the attaching of the test article onto the aircraft belly) it's payload ready. Strapped to the belly of the "mother" or carrier aircraft is the experimental aircraft dubbed "Glamorous Glennis", the Bell Aerospace X-1 aircraft. Painted all in orange (easier to be found in case it crashed out on the desert), shaped like a 50 caliper bullet and equipped with a rocket motor built by Robert Goddard himself the small crowd gathered once again to attempt what up till now had been impossible. Or at least possible and living to tell about it.

Going faster than the speed of sound. Breaking what was known as the Sound Barrier had been attempted many times before, mainly by accident and always in failure, fatal failure in fact.

A Bell X-1 aircraft being loaded onto a B-29/B-50

carrier aircraft. Circa 1951. (NASA Photo)

Not today.

In amongst the crowd that had gathered that October morning was a gregarious Air Force Test Pilot. A war veteran having fought in the skies over France in the P-51 Mustang. He was shot out of the sky once and evaded capture for several months, assisting the French Reistance in the process. Once back in Allied hands he was re-instated to flight status and eventually shot down 11 enemy aircraft including 1 ME-262 Jet aircraft. As an Air Force Captain and Test Pilot Chuck Yeager had earned a reputation of being both through in flight test and evaluation but also of having no fear.

It was Yeager's turn in the X-1. He would not fail.

Today is the anniversary of that milestone; controlled and sustained flight above the speed of sound. Most people know of this event only from the Book and movie named "The Right Stuff". The movie accurately depicts the dangers of early flight testing at what was Muroc Army Airfield. Today it is called Edwards Air Force Base home of Flight Testing for the USAF and NASA which operates the Dryden Flight Research Center from the same dry lake bed.

Edwards AFB and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on the edge of Rogers Dry Lake.

From this testing we learned so much that has advanced flying that today more than 10 million people will be in the air flying point to point, today in one day. Maybe only Electricity, indoor plumbing and the motor car are the only other items that have advanced the human condition more than manned flight. And much of the success of understanding the bounds of flight have come from that one flight in October 1947.

Not so much the raw intelligence gathered from the flight data, but from the Man and Men who came later, in subsequent flights of other "X-Planes", who would not back down at the unknown.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

Secret Life of Space Shuttles

There is a great article here by the magazine Air&Space regarding the long history of the Space Shuttle carrying classified cargo into space. It is a fascinating read, quite long but filled with a bunch of anecdotes from the actual participants, NASA Astronauts and Air Force personnel specifically recruited and trained to conduct classified operations in space.

I love this kind of stuff, most of this is coming out now because programs are being de-classified and the true story can now be told. This differs from the policy over at the New York Times of compromising National Security to help lose a war and thereby throw an election.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

The X-15: Revisited

X-15 #2 in flight under rocket power. (Photo by NASA)

Fifty years ago today the rocket jet known as the X-15 was first flown. Carried up to a launch altitude of feet by a specially modified B-52 aircraft, the X-15 with test pilot Scott Crossfield onboard was jettisoned and then history was made.

Actually, a lot of history would be made by this aircraft. Flown by 12 different pilots, some Air Force (6), some Navy (1) and some would be plain ole civilian (5, one of them none other than Neil Armstrong) these men and the many other men and women that worked on the ground to prepare and document the 199 flight tests contributed to the expansion of our knowledge of aeronautics and space travel.

With these three aircraft one of which was lost (the crash killing Major Michael J. Adams, USAF), NACA and its follow on agency, NASA made it possible for the Space Shuttle to exist some 20 years later. Items such as Reaction Control Thrusters and Thermal Protection were mastered using these aircraft.

In its day they flew to a record 354,000 foot altitude which held until 2004 when that was broken by the third flight of "Spaceship One" by the Burt Rutan's organization, Scaled Composites. The Air Force gave out their famed Astronaut Wings to X-15 pilots, a rare treat even today. The max speed achieved during the X-15 program was mach 6.7 or 4,519 mph. That is fast.

Only a footnote in today's politically charged times however, the 10 years of the X-15 flying test program marked the 'high water' this countries Research, Development and Engineering activity. Contributions in this field continue today but not at the pace it did back in the early 60's.

X-15 immediately after release from the NB-52B 'Mothership'. (USAF photo)

Oh, I was born a few years too late to join in the fun!!

Go here for more: Aero-News Network

Both of the above pictures were stolen from Wikipedia, original source was NACA/NASA or the USAF.

BT: Jimmy T sends.