Yeager, X-1, & X-15

Billy Nguyen Robotics H September

On October 14, 1947 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, history was made when Charles Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to officially fly past the speed of sound in a Bell X-1 rocket plane. This day would mark the beginning of countless innovations to aviation history as well as inspire countless others to push the limits of physics and aerospace engineering. Yeager was born on February 13, 1923 in Myra, West Virginia to parents Albert Hal and Susie Mae Yeager. Growing up in his hometown of Hamlin, West Virginia, Yeager became outdoorsmen. He hunted, fished, and explored the country sight with his grandfather who taught him the basics of nature. He quickly grew interested in his fathers generators and oil pumps as he owned a natural gas drilling business. He would occasionally help his father repair them and would study from them. As Yeager grew older into his teen years, he could take apart and rebuild Chevrolet engines. In school, Yeagers strongest subjects were math and typing. He preferred subjects that required manual dexterity and physical coordination so in high school, Yeager played basketball and football. He graduated from Hamlin High School just 6 months before the US entered World War 2. After the war, Yeager became a credited pilot with more experience than his older peers in the Air Force. Col. Albert Boyd, regarded as the father of modern Air Force flight test, was in charge of selecting a pilot to man the Bell XS-1 (X-1), soon to be the first craft to exceed the speed of sound. If it werent for Yeagers experience, his age, and lack of post high school education mightve limited his credentials. After 7 manned, powered flights reaching a speed of just Mach 0.997, Yeager was able to control the X-1 and to finally reach a speed of Mach 1.06.

During World War 2, Nazi rocket engineers in Germany created the first jet-powered plane called the Me-262 on 1943. While the plane was far from perfect, it showed people that it was possible to achieve jet-powered flight. On March 1945, the United States Air Force, then called the U.S. Army Air Forces, signed a contract will Bell Aviation to build and design 3 XS-1s. The X designation was for X-perimental, while the S was for supersonic. Eventually the name X-1 was later adopted. The X-1 was called for by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, (NACA,) for the study of supersonic research. The design of the X-1 closely resembles that of a Browning .50-caliber bullet which was ideal for the plane to travel through the air without air-resistance. Other design improvements included a working tail design from the British Miles M.52 and a four-chamber rocket engine built by Reaction Motors Inc., the first company in the U.S. to build rocket engines. The X-1 can takeoff regularly as any other aircraft, but was usually mounted and launched in mid-air from a B-50 Superfortress due to limited fuel supply on the X-1. While Pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly the X-1 past the speed of sound, the first pilot to actually fly the X-1 was Bells chief test pilot Jack Woolams. He flew the X-1 underpowered to put it through its paces and provided feedback and input before the plane was returned for engine installation. After many flights, the U.S. Army Air Force was unhappy with the performance and progress of the X-1 that the project was canceled. After much negotiation, the NACA would take over the project in conjunction with the newly established U.S. Air Force. There have been 5 variants of the X-1 and only 3 remain on display today while the rest were destroyed.

After World War 2, many Nazi rocket scientists faced a dilemma: the dominate Soviet Army were capturing former German scientists and were forcing them into labor camps to develop rockets. Knowing this, the United States offered protection from the Soviet Army if the scientists were willing to come to the US to help with its rocket program. One of these scientists was Walter Dornberger. Chief engineer for Germanys V-2 missile program, Dorberger was compiled theory and designs for a craft that would be capable of hypersonic flight. On December 1954, the NACA requested a proposal for the X-15. Much like the Bell X-1, the North American X-15 was part of a series of planes called the X-Planes because of their X designation. Also, the jet-engine manufacturer Reaction Motors Inc., would once again be contracted to design the X-15s engine. Also, like the X-1, the X-15 was designed to be launched in mid-air from a B-52 Stratofortress, called the Balls 8 because of the 008 tail number. Unlike any other aircraft, the X-15s landing gear system comprised of a nose gear and 2 rear skis. However, because of the length of the lower vertical stabilizer which was longer then the skis, this required the pilot to jettison the stabilizer before landing. The X-15 was capable of speeds of up to Mach 6, approx. 4,500mph, and was able to reach 340,000ft or around 60mi in altitude. The reason for such an extreme set of performance data was because the X-15 would later help aerospace engineers design space vehicles such as the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo missions, as well as re-entry space planes like the space shuttle and other X-planes. Pilots to broke the 50mi barrier in the X-15 received their astronaut status as well. There were a total of 3 X-15s built, 13 flights, and 8 brave pilots who manned the X-15 program.

Bibliography

Bell X-1. (2012, September 28). Retrieved September 30, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-1 North American X-15. (2012, July 10). Retrieved September 30, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15 Watler Dornberger. (2012, July 10). Retrieved September 30, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Dornberger Smithsonian. (n.d.). Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis". Retrieved September 29, 2012, from Smithsonian: http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/bellX1.html Winchester, J. (2007). "Chuck" Yeager and Bell X-1. In J. Winchester, Timeline of Aviation (p. 221). Sandiego: Thunder Bay Press. Yeager, C. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2012, from General Chuck Yeager: http://www.chuckyeager.com/