TEST PILOT Bell X-1 supersonic rocket plane SLICK GOODLIN NEGATIVES X4

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176283104123 TEST PILOT Bell X-1 supersonic rocket plane SLICK GOODLIN NEGATIVES X4. SLICK GOODLIN 4 ORIGINAL VINTAGE 4X5 INCH NEGATIVES IN ORIGINAL MANILA ENVELOPE FROM 1947 OF THIS FAMOUS TEST PILOT TAKEN BY THE FAMOUS PHGOTOGRAPHER BERNIE AUMULLER Chalmers Hubert "Slick" Goodlin was the second test pilot of the Bell X-1 supersonic rocket plane, and the first to operate the craft in powered flight. He was the pilot of the project's second plane, and nearly broke the sound barrier.
Chalmers Hubert "Slick" Goodlin (January 2, 1923 – October 20, 2005)[1] was the second test pilot of the Bell X-1 supersonic rocket plane, and the first to operate the craft in powered flight. He was the pilot of the project's second plane, and nearly broke the sound barrier. Biography Early life and World War II service Goodlin was born on January 2, 1923, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He began learning to fly at the age of 15, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 on his eighteenth birthday,[2] inspired by the tremendous air battles over the English Channel in early World War II, but was unable to participate as part of the American military since the U.S. had not yet entered the war. He became the youngest commissioned officer in the RCAF[3] and entered the European theater in 1942. By December of that year, the U.S. Navy had requested that Goodlin transfer back to the States, where he underwent training to become a Navy test pilot. He was released from active duty and found employment with Bell Aircraft as a test pilot in December 1943. Test pilot The Bell Aircraft Corporation built the X-1 in an attempt to break the sound barrier in the 1940s. Goodlin became one of the first certified jet pilots in the United States, was the second pilot to fly the X-1. Goodlin's first, unpowered, flight was on October 11, 1946 at Muroc AFB, California. After a further three glide flights, Goodlin became the first pilot of the X-1 in powered flights, on December 9, 1946 in the #2 aircraft. (The #1 aircraft had been returned to Bell's Buffalo, New York plant for modifications.) Goodlin made another 11 flights in the #2 aircraft before flying the newly modified #1 aircraft. The modifications to the #1 aircraft included new wings (8% thickness/chord ratio as opposed to 10% thickness/chord ratio of the #2 aircraft) and a new horizontal stabilizer (6% thickness/chord ratio as opposed to 8% thickness/chord ratio of the #2 aircraft). Goodlin's first flight in the modified #1 aircraft was April 10, 1947. He flew the X-1 a total of 26 times, pushing it near the sound barrier. Goodlin joined the "Caterpillar Club" two times after bailing out of aircraft during test flights. The X-1 program was taken over by the United States Air Force after Goodlin demanded $150,000 and additionally demanded hazard pay for every minute spent over 0.85 Mach.[4][5] The Bell program was also needlessly conservative, increasing speed by only 0.02 Mach per flight. Subsequently, the sound barrier was broken by Captain Chuck Yeager in 1947. Goodlin later denied ever making the demand for extra pay.[6] Goodlin stated that he had made a deal with Bob Stanley of Bell to make the first supersonic flight before turning the plane over to the United States Air Force, but they wanted a man in uniform to make the flight for the sake of better publicity. [7] In 1948 Goodlin served as a Mahal (foreign volunteer) pilot in the newly formed Israeli Air Force, and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. During the war, while flying an IAF Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk IXe fighter, he was involved in the shooting down of three British Spitfire Mk XVIII reconnaissance fighters.[8] Goodlin later became the chief test pilot for the IAF. Later, when hostilities ceased, he flew Douglas DC-4s for Near East Air Transport on humanitarian missions, carrying thousands of Jewish refugees to Israel from Aden, Arabia and Germany. He continued his career in aviation, owning Seychelles-Kilimanjaro Air Transport, and other companies supplying parts and aircraft to various airlines and other concerns. He led joint ventures with an ex-Le Mans and F1 driver, the decorated Battle of Britain veteran Wing Commander Roger "Dennis" Poore – to whom Goodlin was known as "Chal" (as he was to his friends and family), in internationally leasing/chartering used aircraft and creating the first Dutch air charter company (Transavia) at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, Netherlands, in the mid-1960s. Awards, later life and death What he considered the pinnacle of his career, however, was becoming involved with, and ultimately Chairman and CEO of, the Burnelli Company. Goodlin was a proponent of "lifting fuselage" (also known as Burnelli) aircraft designs,[9] whose proponents argue create far safer airliners. Amongst his other numerous achievements, Goodlin was a nominee for the National Aviation Hall of Fame, was inducted into the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame, the American Rocket Society (Honorary Member 1946), received a Commendation from the American Red Cross for Humanitarian Efforts in Nigerian Relief Operations and Biafra (1969), elected into the Niagara Frontier Aviation Hall of Fame (1987), Society of Experimental Test Pilots (Honorary Fellow 1991) and received the Wright Brothers Memorial Award from the Greater Miami Aviation Association (1992). He enjoyed memberships in the Royal Aero Club, the Quiet Birdmen, the Caterpillar Club, the OX-5 Club, The Greater Miami Aviation Association as a Senior Member and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Goodlin died on October 20, 2005 in Palm Beach, Florida, having never flown supersonic. He made this admission when interviewed for the X-1 profile in The Discovery Channel's 1991 series The X Planes. Goodlin stated he considered flying on the Concorde supersonic passenger jet to attain his Mach 1-plus status, but the prohibitive price kept him from doing so. Chalmers H. “Slick” Goodlin, a test pilot who took the X-1 aircraft to near-supersonic speeds but became a footnote in aviation history when he lost his cockpit seat -- and the right to shatter the sound barrier for the first time -- to a young Chuck Yeager, has died. He was 82. Goodlin, who flew military planes for three countries, died of cancer Oct. 20 at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla., his family announced. After 26 test flights in the X-1, Goodlin was on the brink of making the first supersonic flight when he resigned over a contract dispute. Bell Aircraft Corp., the plane’s manufacturer, refused to pay him a $150,000 bonus for the milestone flight. The military subsequently took over the program, and Yeager achieved stardom on Oct. 14, 1947, at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base) by becoming the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound. He did it for his regular captain’s salary: $3,396 a year. For the rest of his life, Goodlin remained bitter about the lost opportunity, and he and Yeager feuded publicly. Goodlin accused the Air Force of using the disputed fee as a reason to take over the program from Bell, wanting the credit for breaking the sound barrier after he had done the “dirty work” of shaking down the plane. Yeager said he took the risky assignment -- an earlier attempt at supersonic flight had killed a British pilot -- because it was his duty as a military man. Goodlin was a good pilot who could have broken the sound barrier, Yeager told the Dallas Morning News in 1992. “I couldn’t understand why Slick began to delay the program and hold out for more money,” said Yeager, who was by then a general. Goodlin made his stand for the bonus -- an unprecedented amount -- at the wrong time, said Raymond Puffer, an Edwards Air Force Base historian. “When this flap over money came up, it was a perfect occasion to suggest to Bell that the Air Force take it over,” Puffer said. “Goodlin was the man who made the biggest social faux pas at the banquet, and he was touchy about it.” Goodlin later was angered by his portrayal in the 1983 movie “The Right Stuff,” based on the Tom Wolfe bestseller, and threatened to sue over it. In the film, Goodlin is depicted as a cocky, hard-nosed negotiator who says the $150,000 is nonnegotiable. In the next scene, he flicks cigarette ash to the ground as Yeager shears through the sound barrier in the X-1. “I’m so livid about that,” Goodlin told the San Antonio Express-News in 1997. “I wasn’t anywhere near [the base] that day, and my portrayal in the movie was completely false.” Puffer confirmed that Goodlin was not present when Yeager made the historic flight. After his jet-fighter days were over, Goodlin owned a firm that bought, sold and leased aircraft. For 40 years, he championed the unorthodox aircraft designs of Vincent J. Burnelli, who died in 1964. The fuselage of a Burnelli was double the width of a normal airliner’s, and its wings, which carried the fuel, were designed to break off in a crash to prevent the passenger compartment from catching fire. Goodlin was convinced that Burnelli’s radically different design would save 85% of people killed in conventional airliner accidents and lobbied for its acceptance. “He tried to keep the memory of Burnelli alive, and that’s what kept him going all these years,” said Philip S. Dockter, a family friend. “He was quite a guy and a great person.” Born Jan. 2, 1923, in Greensburg, Pa., Goodlin began weekly flying lessons at 15 and delivered the newspaper by airplane. In 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, hoping to get some combat experience -- the United States had not yet entered World War II -- and went to England. The U.S. Navy recruited him as a Navy test pilot in 1942. Bell Aircraft chose him as the primary test pilot for the X-1 in 1943 because he was considered, as Wolfe put it, “the best of the breed” of ex-military pilots. At the suggestion of a friend, Goodlin joined a group of pilots who flew Spitfire fighter planes in 40 missions in defense of Israel in 1948 and 1949. He also became a test pilot for the Israeli Air Force. He continued to fly until the early 1990s, when he suffered a stroke, but he took as few commercial flights as possible because he considered the aircraft too dangerous. Goodlin is survived by his wife, Aila Kaarina Vainio, a brother and a sister. 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.[1] 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 Parallel development XLR-11 rocket engine In 1942, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Aviation began a top secret project with Miles Aircraft to develop the world's first aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier. The project resulted in the development of the prototype turbojet-powered Miles M.52, designed to reach 1,000 miles per hour (870 kn; 1,600 km/h) (over twice the existing airspeed record) in level flight, and to climb to an altitude of 36,000 ft (11 km) in 1 min and 30 sec. By 1944, design of the M.52 was 90% complete and Miles was told to go ahead with the construction of three prototypes. Later that year, the Air Ministry signed an agreement with the United States to exchange high-speed research and data. Miles' Chief Aerodynamicist Dennis Bancroft stated that Bell Aircraft personnel visited Miles later in 1944, and were given access to the drawings and research on the M.52,[2] but the U.S. reneged on the agreement and no data was forthcoming in return.[3] Unknown to Miles, Bell had already started construction of a rocket-powered supersonic design of their own, with a conventional horizontal tail. Bell was battling the problem of pitch control due to "blanking" the elevators.[4][5] A variable-incidence tail appeared to be the most promising solution; and having already decided on it for the M.52, the Miles and the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) tests supported this.[6] Research studies The XS-1 was first discussed in December 1944. Early specifications for the aircraft were for a piloted supersonic vehicle that could fly at 800 miles per hour (1,300 km/h) at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) for two to five minutes.[7] On 16 March 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces Flight Test Division and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) contracted with the Bell Aircraft Company to build three XS-1 (for "Experimental, Supersonic", later X-1) aircraft to obtain flight data on conditions in the transonic speed range.[8] The aircraft's designers built a rocket plane after considering alternatives. Turbojets could not achieve the required performance at high altitude. An aircraft with both turbojet and rocket engines would be too large and complex.[7] The X-1 was, in principle, a "bullet with wings", its shape closely resembling a Browning .50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine gun bullet, known to be stable in supersonic flight.[9] The shape was followed to the extent of seating its pilot behind a sloped, framed window inside a confined cockpit in the nose, with no ejection seat. Swept wings were not used because too little was known about them. As the design might lead to a fighter, the XS-1 was intended to take off from the ground, but the end of the war made the B-29 Superfortress available to carry it into the air.[7] After the rocket plane experienced compressibility problems during 1947, it was modified with a variable-incidence tailplane following technology transfer with the United Kingdom.[2] Following conversion of the X-1's horizontal tail to all-moving (or "all-flying"), test pilot Chuck Yeager verified it experimentally, and all subsequent supersonic aircraft would either have an all-moving tailplane or be "tailless" delta winged types.[10] The rocket engine was a four-chamber design built by Reaction Motors Inc., one of the first companies to build liquid-propellant rocket engines in the U.S. After considering hydrogen peroxide monopropellant, aniline/nitric acid bipropellant, and nitromethane monopropellant as fuels, the rocket burned ethyl alcohol diluted with water with a liquid oxygen oxidizer. Its four chambers could be individually turned on and off, so thrust could be changed in 1,500 lbf (6,700 N) increments. The fuel and oxygen tanks for the first two X-1 engines were pressurized with nitrogen, reducing flight time by about 1+1⁄2 minutes and increasing landing weight by 2,000 pounds (910 kg), but the rest used gas-driven turbopumps, increasing the chamber pressure and thrust while making the engine lighter.[11][7] Operational history Bell Aircraft chief test pilot Jack Woolams became the first person to fly the XS-1. He made a glide-flight over Pinecastle Army Airfield, in Florida, on 19 January 1946. Woolams completed nine more glide-flights over Pinecastle, with the B-29 dropping the aircraft at 29,000 feet (8,800 m) and the XS-1 landing 12 minutes later at about 110 miles per hour (180 km/h). In March 1946 the #1 rocket plane was returned to Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, New York for modifications to prepare for the powered flight tests. Four more glide tests occurred at Muroc Army Air Field near Palmdale, California, which had been flooded during the Florida tests, before the first powered test on 9 December 1946. Two chambers were ignited, but the aircraft accelerated so quickly that one chamber was turned off until reignition at 35,000 feet (11,000 m), reaching Mach 0.795. After the chambers were turned off the aircraft descended to 15,000 feet (4,600 m), where all four chambers were briefly tested.[7][12] After Woolams died while practicing for the National Air Races in August 1946, Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin was assigned as the primary Bell Aircraft test pilot for the X-1. Goodlin made the first powered flight on 9 December 1946. Tex Johnston, Bell's chief test pilot and program supervisor, made a test flight on 22 May 1947, after complaints about the slow progress of flight tests. According to Johnston, "The contract with the Air Corps defined the tests by Bell as onboard systems verification, handling characteristics evaluation, stability and control, and performance testing to Mach 0.99." After Johnston's initial flight at 0.72 Mach, he thought the airplane was ready for supersonic flights, after the longitudinal trim system was fixed, and three more test flights.[13] The Army Air Force was unhappy with the cautious pace of flight envelope expansion and Bell Aircraft's flight test contract for airplane #46-062 was terminated. The test program was acquired by the Army Air Force Flight Test Division on 24 June after months of negotiation. Goodlin had demanded a US$150,000 bonus (equivalent to $1.82 million in 2021) for exceeding the speed of sound.[14]: 96 [15][16] Flight tests of the X-1-2 (serial 46-063) would be conducted by NACA to provide design data for later production high-performance aircraft. Mach 1 flight Chuck Yeager in front of the X-1 that he nicknamed the Glamorous Glennis. The first manned supersonic flight occurred on 14 October 1947, over the Mojave Desert in California,[17] less than a month after the U.S. Air Force had been created as a separate service. Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager piloted USAF aircraft #46-062, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis for his wife. The airplane was drop launched from the bomb bay of a B-29 and reached Mach 1.06 (700 miles per hour (1,100 km/h; 610 kn)).[1] Following burnout of the engine, the plane glided to a landing on the dry lake bed.[14]: 129–130  This was XS-1 flight number 50. 3:05CC Yeager exceeded Mach 1 on 14 October 1947 in the X-1. The three main participants in the X-1 program won the National Aeronautics Association Collier Trophy in 1948 for their efforts. Honored at the White House by President Truman were Larry Bell for Bell Aircraft, Captain Yeager for piloting the flights, and John Stack for the contributions of the NACA. The story of Yeager's 14 October flight was leaked to a reporter from the magazine Aviation Week, and the Los Angeles Times featured the story as headline news in their 22 December issue. The magazine story was released on 20 December. The Air Force threatened legal action against the journalists who revealed the story, but none ever occurred.[18] The news of a straight-wing supersonic aircraft surprised many American experts, who like their German counterparts during the war believed that a swept-wing design was necessary to break the sound barrier.[7] On 10 June 1948, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington announced that the sound barrier had been repeatedly broken by two experimental airplanes.[19][20] On 5 January 1949, Yeager used Aircraft #46-062 to perform the only conventional (runway) launch of the X-1 program, attaining 23,000 ft (7,000 m) in 90 seconds.[21] Legacy The research techniques used for the X-1 program became the pattern for all subsequent X-craft projects. The X-1 project assisted the postwar cooperative union between U.S. military needs, industrial capabilities, and research facilities. The flight data collected by the NACA from the X-1 tests then proved invaluable to further US fighter design throughout the latter half of the 20th century. In 1997, the United States Postal Service issued a fiftieth anniversary commemorative stamp recognizing the Bell X1-6062 aircraft as the first aeronautical vehicle to fly at supersonic speed of approximately Mach 1.06 (1,299 km/h; 806.9 mph). Variants Later variants of the X-1 were built to test different aspects of supersonic flight; one of these, the X-1A, with Yeager at the controls, inadvertently demonstrated a very dangerous characteristic of fast (Mach 2 plus) supersonic flight: inertia coupling. Only Yeager's skills as an aviator prevented disaster; later Mel Apt would lose his life testing the Bell X-2 under similar circumstances. X-1A in flight X-1A (Bell Model 58A) X-1A Ordered by the Air Force on 2 April 1948, the X-1A (serial number 48-1384) was intended to investigate aerodynamic phenomena at speeds greater than Mach 2 (681 m/s, 2,451 km/h) and altitudes greater than 90,000 ft (27 km), specifically emphasizing dynamic stability and air loads. Longer and heavier than the original X-1, with a stepped canopy for better vision, the X-1A was powered by the same Reaction Motors XLR-11 rocket engine. The aircraft first flew, unpowered, on 14 February 1953 at Edwards AFB, with the first powered flight on 21 February. Both flights were piloted by Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler. After NACA started its high-speed testing with the Douglas Skyrocket, culminating in Scott Crossfield achieving Mach 2.005 on 20 November 1953, the Air Force started a series of tests with the X-1A, which the test pilot of the series, Chuck Yeager, named "Operation NACA Weep". These culminated on 12 December 1953, when Yeager achieved an altitude of 74,700 feet (22,800 m) and a new airspeed record of Mach 2.44 (equal to 1620 mph, 724.5 m/s, 2608 km/h at that altitude). Unlike Crossfield in the Skyrocket, Yeager achieved that in level flight. Soon afterwards, the aircraft spun out of control, due to the then not yet understood phenomenon of inertia coupling. The X-1A dropped from maximum altitude to 25,000 feet (7,600 m), exposing the pilot to accelerations of as much as 8g, during which Yeager broke the canopy with his helmet before regaining control.[22] On 28 May 1954, Maj. Arthur W. Murray piloted the X-1A to a new record of 90,440 feet (27,570 m).[23] The aircraft was transferred to NACA during September 1954, and subsequently modified. The X-1A was lost on 8 August 1955, when, while being prepared for launch from the RB-50 mothership, an explosion ruptured the plane's liquid oxygen tank. With the help of crewmembers on the RB-50, test pilot Joseph A. Walker successfully extricated himself from the plane, which was then jettisoned. Exploding on impact with the desert floor, the X-1A became the first of many early X-planes that would be lost to explosions.[24][25] X-1B (Bell Model 58B) X-1B at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The X-1B (serial 48-1385) was equipped with aerodynamic heating instrumentation for thermal research (more than 300 thermal probes were installed on its surface). It was similar to the X-1A except for having a slightly different wing. The X-1B was used for high-speed research by the U.S. Air Force starting from October 1954, prior to being transferred to the NACA during January 1955. NACA continued to fly the aircraft until January 1958, when cracks in the fuel tanks forced its grounding. The X-1B completed a total of 27 flights. A notable achievement was the installation of a system of small reaction rockets used for directional control, making the X-1B the first aircraft to fly with this sophisticated control system, later used in the North American X-15. The X-1B is now at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, Ohio, where it is displayed in the Museum's Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd and Maj. Gen. Fred Ascani Research and Development Gallery. X-1C (Bell Model 58C) The X-1C (serial 48-1387)[26] was intended to test armaments and munitions in the high transonic and supersonic flight regimes. It was canceled while still in the mockup stage, as the development of transonic and supersonic-capable aircraft like the North American F-86 Sabre and the North American F-100 Super Sabre eliminated the need for a dedicated experimental test vehicle.[27] X-1D (Bell Model 58D) The X-1D (serial 48-1386) was the first of the second generation of supersonic rocket planes. Flown from an EB-50A (s/n #46-006), it was to be used for heat transfer research. The X-1D was equipped with a new low-pressure fuel system and a slightly increased fuel capacity. There were also some minor changes of the avionics suite. On 24 July 1951, with Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler at the controls, the X-1D was launched over Rogers Dry Lake, on what was to become the only successful flight of its career. The unpowered glide was completed after a nine-minute descent, but upon landing, the nose landing gear failed and the aircraft slid ungracefully to a stop. Repairs took several weeks to complete and a second flight was scheduled for mid-August. On 22 August 1951, the X-1D was lost in a fuel explosion during preparations for the first powered flight. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact after it was jettisoned from its EB-50A mothership.[28] X-1E (Bell Model 44) Bell X-1-3, aircraft #46-064, being mated to the B-50 mothership for a captive flight test on 9 November 1951. While being de-fueled after this flight it exploded, destroying itself and the B-50, and seriously burning Joe Cannon. X-1-3 had completed only a single glide-flight on 20 July.[29] The X-1E was the result of a reconstruction of the X-1-2 (serial 46-063), in order to pursue the goals originally set for the X-1D and X-1-3 (serial 46-064), both lost by explosions during 1951. The cause of the mysterious explosions was finally traced to the use of Ulmer leather[30] gaskets impregnated with tricresyl phosphate (TCP), a leather treatment, which was used in the liquid oxygen plumbing. TCP becomes unstable and explosive in the presence of pure oxygen and mechanical shock.[31] This mistake cost two lives, caused injuries and lost several aircraft.[32] The X-1E, christened Little Joe, with pilot Joe Walker. The changes included: A turbopump fuel feed system, which eliminated the high-pressure nitrogen fuel system used in '062 and '063. Concerns about metal fatigue in the nitrogen fuel system resulted in the grounding of the X-1-2 after its 54th flight in its original configuration.[33] A re-profiled super-thin wing (3⅜ inches at the root), based on the X-3 Stiletto wing profile, enabling the X-1E to exceed Mach 2.[34] A 'knife-edge' windscreen replaced the original greenhouse glazing, an upward-opening canopy replaced the fuselage side hatch and allowed the inclusion of an ejection seat. The addition of 200 pressure ports for aerodynamic data, and 343 strain gauges to measure structural loads and aerodynamic heating along the wing and fuselage.[33] The X-1E first flew on 15 December 1955, a glide-flight controlled by USAF test pilot Joe Walker. Walker left the X-1E program during 1958, after 21 flights, attaining a maximum speed of Mach 2.21 (752 m/s, 2,704 km/h). NACA research pilot John B. McKay took his place during September 1958, completing five flights in pursuit of Mach 3 (1,021 m/s, 3,675 km/h) before the X-1E was permanently grounded after its 26th flight, during November 1958, due to the discovery of structural cracks in the fuel tank wall. Aircraft on display X-1-1 #46-062 Glamorous Glennis at the National Air and Space Museum. Its color is International orange[35] X-1-1, Air Force Serial Number 46-062, is currently displayed in the Milestones of Flight gallery of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, alongside the Spirit of St. Louis and SpaceShipOne. The aircraft was flown to Washington, D.C., beneath a B-29 and presented to what was then the American National Air Museum in 1950.[36] X-1B, AF Ser. No. 48-1385, is on display in the Research & Development Hangar at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. X-1E, AF Ser. No. 46-063, is on display in front of the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center headquarters building at Edwards Air Force Base, California. It is usually seen in episodes of the TV series I Dream of Jeannie, which was set at Cape Kennedy, Florida. Specifications (Bell X-1 #1 and #2) Bell X-1 orthographic diagram Data from Bell Aircraft since 1935,[37] The X-Planes: X-1 to X-45[21] General characteristics Crew: 1 Length: 30 ft 11 in (9.42 m) X-1A, X-1B, X-1D: 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m) X-1C: 35.0 ft (10.67 m) Wingspan: 28 ft 0 in (8.53 m) X-1E: 22 ft 10 in (6.96 m) Height: 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m) Wing area: 130 sq ft (12 m2) ⠀ X-1E 115 sq ft (10.7 m2) Airfoil: #1 NACA 65-110 (10% thickness) #2, X-1A, X-1B, X-1D NACA 65-108 (8% thickness) X-1E NACA 64A004 Empty weight: 7,000 lb (3,175 kg) X-1A, X-1B, X-1C, X-1D: 6,880 lb (3,120 kg) X-1E: 6,850 lb (3,110 kg) Gross weight: 12,250 lb (5,557 kg) X-1A, X-1B, X-1C, X-1D: 16,487 lb (7,478 kg) X-1E: 14,750 lb (6,690 kg) Powerplant: 1 × Reaction Motors XLR11-RM-3 4-chamber liquid-fuelled rocket engine, 6,000 lbf (27 kN) thrust X-1E: Reaction Motors RMI LR-8-RM-5 6,000 lbf (27 kN) Performance Maximum speed: 1,612 mph (2,594 km/h, 1,401 kn) X-1E: 1,450 mph (1,260 kn; 2,330 km/h) Maximum speed: Mach 2.44 X-1E: M2.24 Endurance: 5 minutes powered flight X-1A, X-1B, X-1C, X-1D: 4 minutes 40 seconds powered flight X-1E: 4 minutes 45 seconds powered flight Service ceiling: 70,000 ft (21,000 m) X-1A, X-1B, X-1C, X-1D: 90,000 ft (27,000 m) X-1E: 75,000 ft (23,000 m) Notable appearances in media Main article: Aircraft in fiction § Bell X-1 See also X-1E orthographic diagram Air Force Test Center Mach number North American X-15 XS-1 (spacecraft) Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Miles M.52 Related lists List of experimental aircraft List of rocket aircraft List of X-1 flights List of X-1A flights List of X-1B flights List of X-1D flights List of X-1E flights Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin was born in January 1923 in Pennsylvania, USA. He began learning to fly at the age of 15. In 1941 at the age of 19 he travelled to Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the war against the Germans. During his military flying training in Canada, he so impressed his colleagues with his flying skills that they gave him the nickname “Slick.” After training, he was also a flight instructor in Canada before completing a combat tour in England flying Spitfires alongside RAF squadrons. Goodlin then transferred to the US Navy. Released from active duty in 1944, Goodlin joined Bell as a test pilot. Following the death in a crash of the initial Bell X-1 test pilot Jack Woolams, Goodlin accepted a lucrative verbal agreement from Bell and became, at just 23-years-old, the prime pilot for the experimental X-1. Goodlin went on to make no less than 33 flights in the X-1 between September 1946 and June 1947. However, in June 1947, when the initial subsonic testing of the X-1 was complete and responsibility for further test flights of the X-1 was taken over by the US Army Air Force, they were unwilling to continue the expensive verbal contract for tests flights that Bell had previously agreed with Goodlin. Aggrieved by what he considered to be a breach of faith, Goodlin quickly tendered his resignation. After leaving Bell, Goodlin looked for work, and was eventually recruited by Joseph Berg, a Hollywood producer, to fly as a volunteer for the IAF. Joining the only fighter squadron, 101, in Israel, he participated in the 7th January 1949 downing of five RAF fighters. Flying with Canadian John McElroy, they encountered four enemy planes and assumed that they belonged to the Egyptian Air Force. Goodlin and McElroy each shot down one plane. Later in the afternoon McElroy shot down another one, and American volunteer Bill Schroeder shot down the third one. Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin USA Combat Record WWII: ? January 7: RAF Spitfire FR 18 (in Spitfire White 16 or White 23) Story Slick Goodlin was a pilot by the time he was 17. In 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his 18th birthday, hoping to get some fighter combat over the Channel. He became the youngest commissioned officer in the RCAF and in 1942, he reached England. In December 1942, Goodlin left the RCAF for the US Navy and training as a Navy test pilot. In 1943, he was released from active duty. In December 1943, Goodlin joined Bell Aircraft as a test pilot. Goodlin is best known for his work at Bell, particularly as a pilot of the X-1 rocket planes - and as a feature in Gillette ads that played on his fame as the fastest man alive. He was on track to become the first pilot to take the X-1 to Mach 1 until June 1947, when the US government took over the project from Bell and installed its own pilot, Chuck Yeager, in the machine. In the fall of 1948, Goodlin decided to offer his piloting skills to the Israelis at the suggestion of a friend, Hollywood producer Joseph Berg. Goodlin saw little combat in 1948, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Faulty intelligence reports led 101 Squadron to believe that a pair of Americans, 40-year-old with the last name of Ellsworth and 29-year-old John Packard, flew as mercenaries for the Egyptians. The 101 pilots meant to show those two pilots the error of their ways. Goodlin in particular would taunt them over the radio whenever he flew near Rafah, saying, "Come on up, Packard! Come on up, Ellsworth! We're waiting for you!" When there weren't mercenaries to taunt, Goodlin found a way to have fun. He, and other pilots, would hunt jackals with .45s as entertainment. Sometimes, the 101 pilots took up a Piper Cub to hunt the jackals from the air. On Jan. 7, McElroy and Goodlin took part in what is probably the most memorable air combat of the war. On January 7, we had done a couple of patrols and we had been told that there was going to be a truce effective at 4:00 p.m. I was sitting in the dispersal hut down on the field at Qastina (Chatzor) with Slick Goodlin and Lee Sinclair. It was late in the afternoon; I think it was probably around 2:15 or 2:30. And I said to Slick, 'I got a funny feeling there's a patrol in the area now down around the El Arish-Auja area. Let's see if we can get a couple of airplanes and take off down there for one more patrol.' Well, Slick said he'd go along and Lee said he wanted to go, so I went to the Engineering Officer and asked if he had two Spitfires ready to go and he said there's maybe (also) a P-51. I said, 'Fine. Slick and I will fly the Spitfires and Lee will take the P-51 and act as sort of a top cover for us and we'll go down and see what we can find.' Slick, though an American, didn't take the P-51 because during that period he had indicated a preference for the Spit for combat work. He thought it was easier to handle and more maneuverable. Slick liked the 20mm cannon which we had in our Spits: more effective firepower. The Spitfire had two 20mm cannon and two .50-inch machine guns, the standard American weapon. I showed the boys the area on the map where we'd go and what area we'd look for. The Engineering Officer came in and said that the P-51 was not serviceable. He had thought it was, but it wasn't. So Lee Sinclair couldn't go. Slick and I went by ourselves. The two of us went down there, down the coast. We were flying at 16,000-18,000 feet. We didn't say much. We were trying to observe radio silence. I didn't know what effect it would have, but we didn't want too many people to know we were coming. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) Despite the loss of its recon Mosquito on Nov. 20, the RAF continued to keep an eye on the war. The British had every right to overfly the Sinai, which belonged to Egypt proper, but by the closing stages of the war much of the northeastern Sinai lay in Israeli hands. On the morning of Jan. 7, the RAF sent two reconnaissance missions from its bases in the Suez Canal Zone to the battlefield. A Mosquito PR 13 from 13 Sqn at RAF Kabrit accompanied by four Tempest F 6s from RAF Deversoir had an uneventful sortie. Four Spitfire FR 18s from 208 Squadron - formerly based at RAF Ramat David - left RAF Fayid at 11:15 and had a radically different experience. F/O Geoff Cooper led F/O Tim McElhaw and their wingmen, P/2 Frank Close and P/2 Ron Sayers respectively, to survey the Israeli-held land around Nitzana and Rafah and to determine the whereabouts of the REAF Spitfire the Israelis had captured on December 29. Another 208 Sqn pilot had photographed the Spitfire being towed while on a recon flight on Jan. 1. The RAF patrol was ordered to fly to Abu Ageila and separate into two sections. Cooper and Close were to fly at 500 feet with the other two covering them at 1,500 feet. After separating, the four were to fly east to the Negev-Sinai border, which they would then follow north to Rafah. As they flew their designated patrol, the Mosquito and four Tempests observed four REAF 2 Sqn Spitfires (Macchis according to Huertas 1998) attack an Israeli column near Rafah, destroying three trucks. The first RAF patrol and Egyptians had left the scene by the time the 208 Sqn Spitfires appeared, a quarter-hour after the Egyptian attack. The 208 Sqn pilots spotted smoke rising over a thousand feet into the air, the result of the Egyptian attack, and flew in for a closer look with Cooper and Close passing low over the Israelis. McElroy (in White 15) and Goodlin (in White 16 or 23) had been flying for a while before McElroy spotted the same smoke: It was pretty uneventful for the first 20 to 25 minutes of the flight. And then, all of a sudden, I said to Slick - he was on my left wing - I said, "Look at that smoke over here to the left, on the ground." It seemed to be about eight or ten miles away. We were a good 40 to 50 miles south of Faluja. It was right on the front line. And there were three columns of smoke - pretty heavy black smoke - going up about 1,000 feet. So I said, "Come on. We'll turn and have a look at this." And as we got closer, I said, "My God!" We could see trucks burning. We could see a couple of light armored vehicles and a number of jeeps. We saw no airplanes at that time. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) They identified the column as Israeli and looked around for enemy aircraft. Chatter on the radio from the ground forces alerted them to the presence of unseen enemy aircraft. The two groups of Spitfires had arrived more or less simultaneously. McElroy spotted four aircraft flying low over the vehicles - in fact, he thought they were strafing the column: There were no markings on the Spitfires. Two of them were headed in an easterly direction. And there were two that had gotten out of sight in a dive. They were diving and we lost them. So I warned Slick to watch out and we got over the convoy. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) The two diving Spitfires must have been Cooper and Close going in for a closer look and photos. The covering pair of McElhaw and Sayers had spotted the Israeli Spitfires, but not in time. They warned the lower pair of the presence of "bogies at three o'clock" just as the Israeli gunners on the ground opened fire. It's possible the lower pair of RAF Spitfires didn't see the Israeli aircraft among the scattered cloud, blowing sand, and smoke. Close later recalled: Our leader took photographs and there was some small arms fire from the ground. The leader (Cooper) was flying at 500 feet. I was his Number Two and was flying right on the deck, because it was safer from ground fire. I assume it was then that the odd bullet got my engine. I pulled up and the plane caught fire immediately and I jumped. (Cull et al 1994) The Israelis on the ground shot at the incoming RAF Spitfires and hit Close's engine. He bailed out at 500 feet, suffering a mild concussion and a broken jaw when his head hit the tail of his aircraft (or possibly after his feet became entangled in the chute rigging and he hit his head on landing). Cooper, hit less critically, climbed steeply to get out of range of the gunners. McElhaw and Sayers, and Cooper apart from them, watched Close's chute as he descended. At that point, McElroy spotted two Spitfires pair dead ahead and low. Oddly, these two appear to have been Cooper and Sayers. Sayers's wingman, McElhaw, escaped this first attack. McElroy narrates: Slick was right beside my wing. He'd crossed over on the starboard side and I pulled another turn and turned south to see if we could pick up the other airplanes. Slick moved over to my left. And just as he did, I yelled, "There's an enemy aircraft at twelve o'clock, right in front if us!" They were about 3,000 feet lower than us. So we stuck our noses down and Slick moved off to the left and started firing. We were right on top of them. They pulled up right in front of us and I blasted one, I guess from about 200 yards, and I saw many explosions all around. Engine. Cockpit. I knocked quite a few pieces off his wings. They'd just pulled out of this dive. They didn't see us at all. They didn't know we were even in the area. I broke off, looked at Slick. He had disappeared from view, but I saw an airplane going down off my left. It was on fire and smoking, in a fairly steep dive around to the left. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) The RAF aircraft McElroy hit dove straight down into the sand dunes, Sayers still inside. (Note that Huertas 1998 has a different description of who shot whom and when.) Cooper, Goodlin's target, had headed higher hoping to outclimb him, but Goodlin, obviously with more smash, followed. Goodlin recalls: My quarry poured on the coal with me in pursuit. We broke out of sandy mist at 10,000 feet, but I could not gain close proximity to the Spit 18 due to lesser power in my Spit 9. At about 16,000 feet, the Spit 18 rolled over and dived back towards me at an impossible deflection angle, with machine guns blazing and exhaust smoke rolling out under both wings. I immediately engaged my opponent in an old-fashioned dogfight scissors. The Spit 9 proved to have better maneuverability and I was able to get into ideal firing position. I saw strikes on my opponent's engine cowl just before he rolled over and bailed out.... I only recognized the RAF roundel after this Spit 18 had fired on me, when we were in the scissors engagement, and I had no alternative but to fight back to save my own bacon. (Cull et al 1994) While the two Spits climbed overhead, McElroy had spotted McElhaw: I took a quick look around, behind, and above. Nothing behind me at all and I looked over and saw another airplane off about two o'clock to me - just off my right and slightly below. I took one look and saw it wasn't one of ours by the markings. Ours had the tails painted with big red and white stripes. I looked for the red and white tail markings of our airplanes. They were all marked the same and they showed up many miles away. It wasn't one of ours, so I just dropped my sights on him - it was about 400 yards - and I let fly. I got strikes all over him. Right down the fuselage and the engine. And I didn't wait around. I just broke off. I got a good burst in, probably about three to four seconds, which is a fairly long burst, and well clobbered with cannon shells and the .50 caliber.. I broke off, looked around but couldn't see Slick. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) Cooper had seen the Israeli Spit on McElhaw and radioed a warning before losing his fight, but McElhaw, orbiting Close's wreckage, had no time to react before having to bail. McElroy's Spitfire suffered damage to the prop and tail from debris falling off his targets. Most accounts attribute the damage to pieces of McElhaw's aircraft, but the first, closer-range kill may have been the culprit. The Israelis on the ground captured Close and McElhaw. Cooper, lightly injured in one leg, evaded capture. Some Bedouins escorted him to small Egyptian border post where he hopped on a camel for a ride to Al Arish. From there he took a hospital train back to the Suez Canal Zone. (Cooper eventually rose to the rank of Air Commodore, and became the aviation reporter for the Daily Telegraph. He had previously downed two REAF Spitfires on May 22, 1948, when the REAF three times attacked Ramat David, then still a RAF base and the home of 208 Sqn. McElhaw had also downed a REAF Spitfire.) After the battle, McElroy and Goodlin reformed: I told Slick where I was on the radio. I said I'd orbit over the convoy. It was on fire, this burning convoy down there, this armored convoy.... They were still burning and you could see them for 15 to 20 miles. So I orbited over there. Slick picked me up and we went home. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) The two Spitfires flew back to Chatzor where they peformed victory rolls over the airfield. Only upon landing, at 12:27, did McElroy learn from Goodlin that they had shot down RAF aircraft. Most of the squadron remained skeptical about this claim, at least until confirmation came by telephone. According to Red Finkel, McElroy's knees buckled and he went deathly pale when he learned the news. He had thought they had been fighting Egyptians and he felt horrified at what he'd done. It was Slick, when we got back home, on the ground, it was Slick that told me. He said those were British Spitfires. And I said, "Oh no. You're crazy. The British wouldn't be down there. That's behind our line." Now where this convoy was on fire... was behind the Israeli lines - I would say roughly three to four miles behind the Israeli front lines. And that's the first thing I knew. Slick said that the British fighters were in the area. That's the first I knew they were even down that way. I never noticed any markings on them. I knew they weren't ours and that's all I needed. We certainly regretted it. We didn't want to get mixed up with the British. However, as I've explained to many people, we were flying and fighting for the Israelis. There were aircraft - at the time it didn't matter whose they were to me - attacking Israeli vehicles and Israeli personnel. It was our job and our duty to stop it and that was the only way we could stop it. It was too bad, as I say, but we had no indication that the British were in the area. (Rubenstein and Goldman 1978) The day after the bruhaha with the RAF, 101 Squadron pilots sent a telegram to 208 Sqn RAF headquarters in Nicosia, Cyprus, reading: Sorry about yesterday, but you were on the wrong side of the fence. Come over and have a drink sometime. You will see many familiar faces. 101 Squadron, IAF After the war, Goodlin and another pilot printed up business cards for the Machal 101 pilots. The cards toyed with the perception that some of the pilots were there just for the cash. The card identified the bearer as a "Soldier of Fortune", a charter member of Local 88 working for a company called Mercenaries, Inc. The card claimed the bearer would fly all types of planes at day or night and that he would fight wars, all at reasonable rates. After the shooting stopped in January, Goodlin transferred to 106 Squadron, formerly Air Transport Command. On Mar. 6, 1949, he flew the first C-46 to take part in the footnote known as Operation Uvdah, a land-grab of the desert between Beersheba and Eilat. C-46s shuttled troops, supplies, and equipment from Ekron to Avraham, a makeshift field 35 miles north of Eilat. Goodlin stayed in Israel for a few months and became Israel's first official test pilot. After that, he and Lou Lenart joined a private charter service that ferried Iraqi Jews to Israel. Chalmers H. (Slick) Goodlin Chalmers H. (Slick) Goodlin (1923- ) became interested in aviation at the age of fifteen. Two years later, he had solo piloted a number of different aircraft. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his eighteenth birthday, intrigued by accounts of tremendous air battles over the English Channel in the early days of World War II, but unable to participate as part of the American military since the U.S. had not yet entered the war. He became the youngest commissioned officer in the RCAF and was sent over to the European theater in 1942. By December of that year, the U.S. Naval Air Force had requested that Goodlin transfer back to the states, where he underwent training to become a Navy test pilot. He was released from active duty and found employment with Bell Aircraft as a test pilot in December 1943. In September, 1946, Goodlin was selected to be the first test pilot for the second aircraft in the Bell X-1 program. He piloted twenty-six successful flights in both of the X-1 aircraft from September 1946 until June 1947, when Bell Aircraft's contract was terminated and Goodlin was replaced as test pilot by Chuck Yeager. See Into the Unknown (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994); "Chalmers (Slick) Goodlin," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection. Issac Newton once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Progress happens when men stand on the shoulders of other men.  When Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space he rode on the shoulders of John Glenn, Gus Grissom and many others. When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on 14 October  1947, he had been a pilot for only six years.  He made his momentous progress standing on the shoulders of Chalmers Goodlin, a former-RCAF pilot, a good friend of mine and one whom I consider as qualifying as an Honorary Canadian. Chalmers Goodlin was born in 1923.  In 1941, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his 18th birthday hoping to get some fighter combat experience over the English Channel.  He became the youngest commissioned officer in the RCAF and in mid-1942, he reached England. In December 1942, Goodlin was enticed to leave the RCAF for the US Navy to train as a Navy test pilot. In 1943, he was released from active duty, never having the opportunity to fire a shot at an enemy. In December 1943, Goodlin joined Bell Aircraft as a test pilot.  He flew 33 missions in the X-1 and was on track to become the first pilot to take the “bullet” to Mach 1.  However, in June 1947, the US government took over the project from Bell and installed its own pilot, Chuck Yeager. Goodlin, in a personal message to me, stated, “I believe my RCAF flight training was invaluable for my career and the accompanying military schooling was great character building for an 18-year-old fresh off the farm.” Approximately 10% of the RCAF enlistments at the beginning of WWII were Americans like Chalmers. Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin died on 20 October 2005, at the age of 82.  He will be missed. But why do I think he was special to Canada?  He owned an RCAF-crested jacket which he wore on special occasions.  Like the time he was on the cover of First Class Magazine, an American publication.  Or the time he testified in a U.S. Congressional hearing.  And I will never forget the sight of this great American aviator being laid to rest in 2005, wearing his RCAF jacket. Test flying as a systematic activity started during the First World War, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in the United Kingdom. An "Experimental Flight" was formed at the Central Flying School. During the 1920s, test flying was further developed by the RAE in the UK, and by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the United States. In the 1950s, NACA was transformed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. During these years, as work was done into aircraft stability and handling qualities, test flying evolved towards a more qualitative scientific profession. In the 1950s, test pilots were being killed at the rate of about one a week,[citation needed] but the risks have shrunk to a fraction of that because of the maturation of aircraft technology, better ground-testing and simulation of aircraft performance, fly-by-wire technology and, lately, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to test experimental aircraft features. Still, piloting experimental aircraft remains more dangerous than most other types of flying. At the insistence of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first American astronauts, the Mercury Seven, were all military test pilots, as were some of the later astronauts. The world's oldest test pilot school is what is now called the Empire Test Pilots' School (motto "Learn to Test – Test to Learn"), at RAF Boscombe Down in the UK. There are a number of similar establishments over the world. In America, the United States Air Force Test Pilot School is located at Edwards Air Force Base, the United States Naval Test Pilot School is located at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland and EPNER (Ecole du Personnel Navigant d'Essai et de Reception – "School for flight test and acceptance personnel"), the French test pilot school, is located in Istres, France. There are only two civilian schools; the International Test Pilots School in London, Ontario, and the National Test Pilot School, a not-for-profit educational institute is in Mojave, California. In Russia, there is a Russian aviation industry Fedotov Test Pilot School (founded 1947)[3] located in Zhukovsky within the Gromov Flight Research Institute. Qualifications Understand a test plan Stick to a test plan by flying a plane in a highly specific way Carefully document the results of each test Have an excellent feel for the aircraft and sense exactly how it is behaving oddly if it is doing so Solve problems quickly if anything goes wrong with the aircraft during a test Cope with many different things going wrong at once Effectively communicate flight test observations to engineers and relate engineering results to the pilot community, thus bridging the gap between those who design and build aircraft with those who employ the aircraft to accomplish a mission Have an excellent knowledge of aeronautical engineering to understand how and why planes are tested. Be above-average pilots with excellent analytical skills and the ability to fly accurately while they follow a flight plan. Test pilots can be experimental and engineering test pilots (investigating the characteristics of new types of aircraft during development) or production test pilots (the more mundane role of confirming the characteristics of new aircraft as they come off the production line). Many test pilots would perform both roles during their careers. Modern test pilots often receive formal training from highly-selective military test pilot schools, but other test pilots receive training and experience from civilian institutions and/or manufacturers' test pilot development programs. A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typically for at most a few minutes of powered operation, followed by a gliding flight. Unhindered by the need for oxygen from the atmosphere, they are suitable for very high-altitude flight. They are also capable of delivering much higher acceleration and shorter takeoffs. Many rocket aircraft may be drop launched from transport planes, as take-off from ground may leave them with insufficient time to reach high altitudes. Rockets have been used simply to assist the main propulsion in the form of jet assisted take off (JATO) also known as rocket assisted take off (RATO or RATOG). Not all rocket planes are of the conventional takeoff like "normal" aircraft. Some types have been air-launched from another plane, while other types have taken off vertically – nose in the air and tail to the ground ("tail-sitters"). Because of the use of heavy propellants and other practical difficulties of operating rockets, the majority of rocket planes have been built for experimental or research use, as interceptor fighters and space aircraft. History Background Pedro Paulet's Avión Torpedo of 1902, featuring a canopy fixed to a delta tiltwing for horizontal or vertical flight. Peruvian polymath Pedro Paulet conceptualized the Avión Torpedo in 1902 – a liquid-propellant rocket-powered aircraft that featured a canopy fixed to a delta tiltwing – spending decades seeking donors for the aircraft while serving as a diplomat in Europe and Latin America.[1] Paulet's concept of using liquid-propellant was decades ahead of rocket engineers at the time who utilized black powder as a propellant.[1] Reports of Paulet's rocket aircraft concept first appeared in 1927 after Charles Lindbergh was the first to successfully fly an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean.[2] Paulet publicly criticized Austrian rocket pioneer Max Valier's proposal about a rocket-powered aircraft completing the journey faster using black powder, arguing that his liquid-propellant rocket aircraft from thirty years earlier would be a better option.[2] Paulet would go on to visit the German rocket association Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) and on March 15, 1928, Valier applauded Paulet's liquid-propelled rocket design in the VfR publication Die Rakete, saying the engine had "amazing power".[3] In May 1928, Paulet was present to observe the demonstration of a rocket car of the Opel RAK program of Fritz von Opel and Max Valier, and after meeting with the German rocket enthusiasts.[3] VfR members began to view black powder as a hindrance for rocket propulsion, with Valier himself believing that Paulet's engine was necessary for future rocket development.[3] Paulet would soon be approached by Nazi Germany to help develop rocket technology, though he refused to assist and never shared the formula for his propellant.[1] The Nazi government would then appropriate Paulet's work while a Soviet spy in the VfR, Alexander Boris Scherchevsky, possibly shared plans with the Soviet Union.[4] Opel RAK.1 - World's first public manned flight of a rocket plane on September 30, 1929. On June 11, 1928, as part of the Opel RAK program of Fritz von Opel and Max Valier, Lippisch Ente became the first aircraft to fly under rocket power.[5][6][7] During the following year, the Opel RAK.1 became the first purpose-built rocket plane to fly with Fritz von Opel himself as the pilot.[8] The Opel RAK.1 flight is also considered the world's first public flight of a manned rocket plane since it took place before a large crowd and with world media in attendance. On 28 June 1931, another ground-breaking rocket flight was conducted by the Italian aviator and inventor Ettore Cattaneo, who created another privately built rocket plane. It flew and landed without particular problems. Following this flight, the King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III appointed Cattaneo count of Taliedo; due to his pioneering role in rocket flight, his likeness is displayed in the Space Museum of Saint Petersburg as well as in the Museum of Science and Tech of Milan.[9][10] World War II The Heinkel He 176 was the world's first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-propellant rocket engine. It performed its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls.[11][page needed] The He 176, while demonstrated to the Reich Air Ministry did not attract much official support, leading to Heinkel abandoning its rocket propulsion endeavours; the sole aircraft was briefly displayed at the Berlin Air Museum and was destroyed by an Allied bombing raid in 1943.[12] The first rocket plane ever to be mass-produced was the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet interceptor, introduced by Germany towards the final years of the conflict as one of several efforts to develop effective rocket-powered aircraft.[13] The Luftwaffe's first dedicated Me 163 fighter wing, Jagdgeschwader 400 (JG 400) was established in 1944, and was principally tasked with providing additional protection for the manufacturing plants producing synthetic gasoline, which were prominent targets for Allied air raids. It was planned to station further defensive units of rocket fighters around Berlin, the Ruhr and the German Bight.[14] A typical Me 163 tactic was to fly vertically upward through the bombers at 9,000 m (30,000 ft), climb to 10,700–12,000 m (35,100–39,400 ft), then dive through the formation again, firing as they went. This approach afforded the pilot two brief chances to fire a few rounds from his cannons before gliding back to his airfield.[15] It was often difficult to supply the needed fuel for operating the rocket motors. In the final days of the Third Reich, the Me 163 was withdrawn in favor of the more successful Messerschmitt Me 262, which used jet propulsion instead.[15] Other German rocket-powered aircraft were pursued as well, including the Bachem Ba 349 "Natter", a vertical takeoff manned rocket interceptor aircraft that flew in prototype form.[16][17] Further projects never even reached the prototype stage, such as the Zeppelin Rammer, the Fliegende Panzerfaust and the Focke-Wulf Volksjäger. Having a much larger size than any other rocket-powered endeavor of the conflict, the Silbervogel antipodal bomber spaceplane was planned by the Germans, however, later calculations showed that design would not have worked, instead being destroyed during reentry.[18][page needed] The Me 163 Komet is the only type of rocket-powered fighter to see combat in history, and one of only two types of rocket-powered aircraft seeing any combat. A Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka replica at the Yasukuni Shrine Yūshūkan war museum Japan, who was allied to Nazi Germany, secured the design schematics of the Me 163 Komet.[19] After considerable effort, it successfully established its own production capability, which was used to produce a limited number of its own copies, known as the Mitsubishi J8M, which performed its first powered flight on 7 July 1945.[20] Furthermore, Japan attempted to develop its own domestically designed rocket-powered interceptor, the Mizuno Shinryu; neither the J8M or the Shinryu ever saw combat.[21] The Japanese also produced approximately 850 Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka rocket-powered suicide attack aircraft during the Second World War, a number were deployed in the Battle of Okinawa. Postwar analysis concluded that the Ohka's impact was negligible, and that no U.S. Navy capital ships had been hit during the attacks due to the effective defensive tactics that were employed.[22] Other experimental aircraft included the Soviet Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 that flew in 1942 while the Northrop XP-79 was originally planned with rocket engines but switched to jet engines for its first and only flight in 1945. A rocket assisted P-51D Mustang was developed by North American Aviation that could attain 515 mph.[23][24] The engine ran on fumaric acid and aniline which was stored in two 75 gallon under wing drop tanks.[24] The plane was tested in flight in April 1945. The rocket engine could run for about a minute.[24] Similarly, the Messerschmitt Me 262 "Heimatschützer" series used a combination of rocket and jet propulsion to allow for shorter take-offs, faster climb rate, and even greater speeds.[25] Cold War era The X-15's XLR99 rocket engine used ammonia and liquid oxygen. The Lockheed NF-104A had rocket and air-breathing turbojet engines, shown here climbing with rocket power. The rocket used hydrogen peroxide and JP-4 jet fuel. During 1946, the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich I-270 was constructed in response to a Soviet Air Forces requirement issued during the previous year for a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft in the point-defence role.[26] The design of the I-270 incorporated several pieces of technology that had been developed by Sergei Korolev between 1932 and 1943.[27][28] During 1947, a key milestone in aviation history was reached by the rocket-powered Bell X-1, which became the first aircraft to break the speed of sound in level flight, and would be the first of a series of NACA/NASA rocket-powered aircraft.[29] Amongst these experimental aircraft were the North American X-15 and X-15A2 designs, which were operated for around a decade and eventually attained a maximum speed of Mach 6.7 as well as a peak altitude in excess of 100 km, setting new records in the process.[30] During the 1950s, the British developed several mixed power designs to cover the performance gap that existed in then-current turbojet designs. The rocket was the main engine for delivering the speed and height required for high speed interception of high level bombers and the turbojet gave increased fuel economy in other parts of flight, most notably to ensure that the aircraft was able to make a powered landing rather than risking an unpredictable gliding return.[31][32] One design was the Avro 720, which was primarily propelled by an 8,000 lbf (36 kN) Armstrong Siddeley Screamer rocket engine that ran on kerosene fuel mixed with liquid oxygen as the oxidizing agent.[33] Work on the Avro 720 was abandoned shortly after the Air Ministry's decision to terminate development of the Screamer rocket engine, allegedly due to official concerns regarding the practicality of using liquid oxygen, which boils at -183 °C (90 K) and is a fire hazard, within an operational environment.[34][35][36] Work reached a more advanced stage with the Avro 720's rival, the Saunders-Roe SR.53. The propulsion system of this aircraft used hydrogen peroxide as a combined fuel and oxidiser, which was viewed as less problematic than the Avro 720's liquid oxygen.[34] On 16 May 1957, Squadron Leader John Booth DFC was at the controls of XD145 for the first test flight, following up with the maiden flight of the second prototype XD151, on 6 December 1957.[37][38] During the subsequent flight test programme, these two prototypes flew 56 separate test flights, during which a maximum speed of Mach 1.33 was recorded.[39] Furthermore, since late 1953, Saunders-Roe had worked upon a derivative of the SR.53, which was separately designated as the SR.177; the principal change was the presence of an onboard radar, lacking on the SR.53 and the Avro 720 as it not being a requirement of the specification, but left the pilot dependent on his own vision other than radio-based directions supplied from ground-based radar control.[40] Both the SR.53 and its SR.177 cousin were relatively close to attain production status when wider political factors bore down upon the programme. During 1957, a massive re-thinking of air defence philosophy in Britain occurred, which was embodied in the 1957 Defence White Paper. This paper called for manned combat aircraft to be replaced by missiles, and thus the prospects of an order from the RAF evaporated overnight.[41] While both the Royal Navy and Germany remained potential customers for the SR.177, the confidence of both parties was shaken by the move.[42] Further factors, such as the Lockheed bribery scandals to compel overseas nations to order the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, also served to undermine the sale prospects of the SR.177, costing potential customers such as Germany and Japan.[43] Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, the French Air Staff also had considerable interest in rocket-powered aircraft.[44] According to author Michel van Pelt, French Air Force officials were against a pure rocket-powered flight but favoured a mixed-propulsion approach, using a combination of rocket and turbojet engines. While the Société d'Etudes pour la Propulsion par Réaction (SEPR) set about developing France's own domestic rocket engines, the French aircraft manufacturer SNCASE was aware of the French Air Force's keenness for a capable point defence interceptor aircraft, and thus begun work on the SNCASE SE.212 Durandal.[44] In comparison to other French mixed-power experimental aircraft, such as the competing SNCASO Trident prototype interceptor, it was a heavier aircraft, intended to fly primarily on its jet engine rather than its rocket motor.[45] A pair of prototype aircraft were constructed; on 20 April 1956, the first performed its maiden flight, initially flying only using jet power.[46] It was the second prototype that first made use of the rocket motor during April 1957.[46] During flight testing, a maximum speed of 1,444 kilometres per hour (897 mph) was attained at an altitude of12,300 metres (40,400 ft), even without using the extra power of the rocket motor; this rose to 1667 km/h at 11,800 m while the rocket was active. A total of 45 test flights were performed prior to work on the programme being terminated.[46] A SNCASO Trident on static display At the request of the French Air Staff, the French aircraft company SNCASO also developed its own point defence interceptor, the SNCASO Trident.[44] It was primarily powered by a single SEPR-built rocket engine and augmented with a set of wing-tip mounted turbojet engines; operationally, both rocket and turbojet engines were to be used to perform a rapid climb and interception at high altitudes, while the jet engines alone would be used to return to base.[44] On 2 March 1953, the first prototype Trident I conducted the type's maiden flight; flown by test pilot Jacques Guignard, the aircraft used the entire length of the runway to get airborne, being powered only by its turbojet engines.[47] On 1 September 1953, second Trident I prototype crashed during its first flight after struggling to gain altitude after takeoff and colliding with an electricity pylon.[48] Despite the loss, the French Air Force were impressed by the Trident's performance and were keen to have an improved model into service.[49] On 21 May 1957, the first Trident II, 001, was destroyed during a test flight out of Centre d'Essais en Vol (Flight Test Center); caused when highly volatile rocket fuel and oxidiser, Furaline ( C13H12N2O) and Nitric acid (HNO3) respectively, accidentally mixed and exploded, resulting in the death of test pilot Charles Goujon.[50][51] Two months later, all work was halted on the programme.[47] The advancement of the turbojet engine output, the advent of missiles, and advances in radar had made a return to mixed power unnecessary. The Martin Aircraft Company X-24 lifting body built as part of a 1963 to 1975 experimental US military program The development of Soviet rockets and satellites was the driving force behind the development of NASA's space program. In the early 1960s, American research into the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane was cancelled due to lack of purpose; later the studies contributed to the Space Shuttle, which in turn motivated the Soviet Buran. Another similar program was ISINGLASS which was to be a rocket plane launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrier, which was intended to achieve Mach 22, but this was never funded. ISINGLASS was intended to overfly the USSR. No images of the vehicle configuration have been released.[52] The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle was a mixed powered vehicle- a jet engine cancelled 5/6 of the force due to gravity, and the rocket power was able to simulate the Apollo lunar lander.[53] Various versions of the Reaction Motors XLR11 rocket engine powered the X-1 and X-15, but also the Martin Marietta X-24A, Martin Marietta X-24B, Northrop HL-10, Northrop M2-F2, Northrop M2-F3, and the Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor, either as a primary or auxiliary engine. The Northrop HL-10, Northrop M2-F2 and Northrop M2-F3 were examples of a lifting body, which are aircraft which have very little if any wing and simply obtain lift from the body of the vehicle. Another example is backslider rockets in amateur rocketry.[citation needed] Post Cold War era EZ-Rocket research aircraft The EZ-Rocket research and test airplane was first flown in 2001.[54] After evaluating the EZ-Rocket, the Rocket Racing League developed three separate rocket racer aircraft over the following decade.[55][56] During 2003, another privately developed rocket-powered aircraft performed its first flight. SpaceShipOne functions both as a rocket-powered aircraft—with wings and aerodynamic control surfaces—as well as a spaceplane—with RCS thrusters for control in the vacuum of space. For their work, the SpaceShipOne team were awarded the Space Achievement Award.[57] In April 2019, the Chinese company Space Transportation carried out a test of a 3,700-kilogram technology demonstrator named Jiageng-1. The 8.7-meter-long plane has a wingspan of 2.5 meters and it is a part of development of the larger, future Tianxing-I-1 vertical takeoff, horizontal landing reusable launch vehicle.[58] Planned rocket-powered aircraft Reaction Engines Skylon SpaceShipTwo Lynx rocketplane ARES (martian rocketplane) Zero Emission Hyper Sonic Transport
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