Bell X-2

Panel Size: 18"x 40"
Flown by: Frank K. "Pete" Everest Jr.

Please allow a 4-6 week lead time on these panels... Order Early!

Plane Type:Bell X-2

The Bell X-2 (nicknamed "Starbuster") was an X-plane research aircraft built to investigate flight characteristics in the Mach 2–3 range. (The term "Starbuster" is seldom, if ever, found in contemporary accounts.)The X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft developed jointly in 1945 by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the U.S. Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to explore aerodynamic problems of supersonic flight and to expand the speed and altitude regimes obtained with the earlier X-1 series of research aircraft. Lt. Col. Frank K. "Pete" Everest completed the first powered flight in the #1 airplane (46-674) on 18 November 1955. By the time of his ninth and final flight in late July 1956 the project was years behind schedule, but he had established a new speed record of Mach 2.87 (1,900 mph, 3050 km/h). PLANE JUNKIE - "X-2 Starbuster" Nose Art Panel (Bell X-2)