Canons

Bell X-1 Photograph Signed by Chuck Yeager and Seven Test Pilots.

réf. 152444 — Photograph of the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. Glossy black-and-white photograph of the Bell X-1 rocket-powered aircraft nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis" in flight. Boldly signed by eight of the program's test pilots: Chuck Yeager Frank "Pete" Everest Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin Bob Champine with "NACA X-1 pilot 1950" John H. Griffith Gus Lundquist Joe Cannon and Scott Crossfield. In fine condition. The piece measures 10 inches by 8 inches. Rare and desirable. The Bell X-1 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 1000 miles per hour 1600 km/h in 1948. A derivative of this same design the Bell X-1A having greater fuel capacity and hence longer rocket burning time exceeded 1600 miles per hour 2600 km/h 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. unknown