The Flickr Bellaircraft Image Generatr

Description Neil Armstrong in cockpit of the Ames Bell X-14 airplane at NASA's Ames Research Center. Photograph by NASA photographer Lee Jones.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA/Lee Jones
Image Number: A-32136-4
Date: February 1964

This image was completely recreated from an existing black-and-white document from the 1960s that was very poorly reproduced.

Source: Time Magazine

Published at: digitalposterarchive.com/1939-1945-world-war-ii/world-war...

88069239 :Piction ID--PSA Bell 47G N6209N Pacific Southwest Airlines---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

88069204 :Piction ID--PSA Bell 47G N6209N Pacific Southwest Airlines---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

88069208 :Piction ID--PSA Bell 47G N6209N Pacific Southwest Airlines---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

88069163 :Piction ID--PSA Bell 47G N6209N Pacific Southwest Airlines---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

88069165 :Piction ID--PSA Bell 47G N6209N Pacific Southwest Airlines---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

88069200 :Piction ID--PSA Bell 47G N6209N Pacific Southwest Airlines---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

Ames Test Pilot Fred Drinkwater congratulating Neil Armstrong on his first hovering flight in the Ames Bell X-14 Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) airplane at NASA's Ames Research Center.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA/Lee Jones
Image Number: A-32136-3
Date: February 1964

Standing left to right alongside of Bell XS-1 are: Captain Charles E. Yeager, Major Gus Lundquist and Captain James Fitzgerald

[1947 or 1948]

1 photographic print.

Notes:
Photograph shows "Chuck" Yeager, Gus Lundquist, and Jim Fitzgerald wearing a flight suit, standing next to the Bell XS-1 rocket research airplane "Glamorous Glennis."
Title from item.
A.C. 34514.
Credit: U.S. Air Force photo., Wash. D.C.

Subjects:
Bell Aircraft Corporation--1940-1950.
Yeager, Chuck,--1923-
Lundquist, Gustav E.,--1919-
Fitzgerald, James Thomas, d. 1948.
Test pilots--United States--1940-1950.

Format: Portrait photographs--1940-1950.
Group portraits--1940-1950.
Photographic prints--1940-1950.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c35240

Call Number: LOT 6010 [item]

Piction ID: 86110121 Pine Camp, NY--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Piction ID: 86110121 Pine Camp, NY Fairchild C-82 Packet and Bell Helicopter--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis

Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis

Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis

Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis

Description (1955) The Bell Aircraft Corporation X-1E airplane being loaded under the mothership, Boeing B-29. The X planes had originally been lowered into a loading pit and the launch aircraft towed over the pit, where the rocket plane was hoisted by belly straps into the bomb bay. By the early 1950's a hydraulic lift had been installed on the ramp at the NACA High-Speed Flight Station to elevate the launch aircraft and then lower it over the rocket plane for mating.

There were four versions of the Bell X-1 rocket-powered research aircraft that flew at the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station, Edwards, California. The bullet-shaped X-1 aircraft were built by Bell Aircraft Corporation, Buffalo, N.Y. for the U.S. Army Air Forces (after 1947, U.S. Air Force) and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The X-1 Program was originally designated the XS-1 for EXperimental Supersonic. The X-1's mission was to investigate the transonic speed range (speeds from just below to just above the speed of sound) and, if possible, to break the "sound barrier." Three different X-1s were built and designated: X-1-1, X-1-2 (later modified to become the X-1E), and X-1-3. The basic X-1 aircraft were flown by a large number of different pilots from 1946 to 1951. The X-1 Program not only proved that humans could go beyond the speed of sound, it reinforced the understanding that technological barriers could be overcome. The X-1s pioneered many structural and aerodynamic advances including extremely thin, yet extremely strong wing sections; supersonic fuselage configurations; control system requirements; powerplant compatibility; and cockpit environments.

The X-1 aircraft were the first transonic-capable aircraft to use an all-moving stabilizer. The flights of the X-1s opened up a new era in aviation. The first X-1 was air-launched unpowered from a Boeing B-29 Superfortress on January 25, 1946. Powered flights began in December 1946. On October 14, 1947, the X-1-1, piloted by Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager, became the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound, reaching about 700 miles per hour (Mach 1.06) and an altitude of 43,000 feet. The number 2 X-1 was modified and redesignated the X-1E. The modifications included adding a conventional canopy, an ejection seat, a low-pressure fuel system of increased capacity, and a thinner high-speed wing. The X-1E was used to obtain in-flight data at twice the speed of sound, with particular emphasis placed on investigating the improvements achieved with the high-speed wing. These wings, made by Stanley Aircraft, were only 3-3/8-inches thick at the root and had 343 gauges installed in them to measure structural loads and aerodynamic heating. The X-1E used its rocket engine to power it up to a speed of 1,471 miles per hour (Mach 2.24) and to an altitude of 73,000 feet. Like the X-1 it was air-launched. The X-1 aircraft were almost 31 feet long and had a wingspan of 28 feet. The X-1 was built of conventional aluminum
stressed-skin construction to extremely high structural standards. The X-1E was also 31 feet long but had a wingspan of only 22 feet, 10 inches. It was powered by a Reaction Motors, Inc., XLR-8-RM-5, four-chamber rocket engine. As did all X-1 rocket engines, the LR-8-RM-5 engine did not have throttle capability, but instead, depended on ignition of any one chamber or group of chambers to vary speed.

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

Credit: NASA
Image Number: E55-02072
Date: 1955

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.