Bell X-1

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Chuck Yeager Chuck Yeager posing with the Bell X-1 aircraft (nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis” in reference to his wife) on the day he became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, October 14, 1947.

Bell X-1

airplane

Also known as: Bell XS-1, Glamorous Glennis, X-1, XS-1

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Also called:: X-1

Key People:: Lawrence Dale Bell

Related Topics:: airplane

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Bell X-1, U.S. rocket-powered supersonic research airplane built by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. On October 14, 1947, an X-1 launched from the bomb bay of a B-29 bomber and piloted by U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager over the Mojave Desert of California broke the sound barrier of 1,066 km (662 miles) per hour at an altitude of 13,000 metres (43,000 feet) and attained a top speed of 1,126 km (700 miles) per hour, or Mach 1.06.

Designed exclusively for research, the X-1 had thin, unswept wings and a fuselage modeled after a .50-inch bullet. Its length was 9.4 metres (31 feet) and its wingspan 8.5 metres (28 feet). It was powered by a liquid-fueled rocket engine designed, built, and tested by American engineer James Hart Wyld. Experience gained in the X-1 tests led to the development of the X-15 rocket plane.

The record-breaking aircraft piloted by Yeager now resides in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

NASA's Reduced Gravity Program provides the unique weightless or zero-G environment of space flight for testing and training of human and hardware reactions. NASA used the turbojet KC-135A to run these parabolic flights from 1963 to 2004.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.