Bell X-1 with B-29 Mothership

Overall Size: 17.25" x 14.25"
Photo Size: 8" x 10"

Plane Type: Bell X-1 with B-29 Mothership

Seen here is B-29-96-BW serial number 45-21800 that was used as the "mother" aircraft for launches of the Bell X-1 rocket-powered research aircraft. On October 14, 1947, Capt Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager was dropped in his X-1 from the B-29 and became the first human to pilot an aircraft faster than the speed of sound.

The Bell X-1 that General Yeager flew to break the speed of sound was 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.The X-1, piloted by Chuck Yeager, was the first manned 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) designated for testing of new technologies and often kept secret.