| rdfs:comment | - Three airframes, with US Air Force serials 46-062, 46-063 and 46-064, were built under the terms of contract W33-038-ac-9183, which had been signed on March 16 1945. The three aircraft, which originally carried the XS (Experimental Supersonic) designation, would be used to explore the transonic speed envelope wherein an object transitions from subsonic to supersonic flight, with emphasis on the affects on stability and control experienced during supersonic flight.
- The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army Air Forces-U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by the Bell Aircraft Company. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built during 1945, it reached nearly 1,000 mph (1,600 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 1,600 mph (2,575 km/h) in 1954. The X-1 was the first airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight and was the first of the so-called X-planes, a series of American experimental rocket planes designated for testing of new technologies and often kept secret.
- Soviet designers working on ramjet conceptsin 1933, fired phosphorus-powered engines out of artillery guns to get them to operational speeds and tried out some unnamed vehicles, which broke the sound barrier that year. A Spitfire PR Mk XI (PL965) was of the type used in the 1944 RAE Farnborough dive tests during which it got the highest Mach Number of 0.92, was obtained, but not officially recorded. After cancellation, the research was used to construct an unmanned missile that went on to achieve a speed of Mach 1.38, proving the idea to be scientifically valid.
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| abstract | - Soviet designers working on ramjet conceptsin 1933, fired phosphorus-powered engines out of artillery guns to get them to operational speeds and tried out some unnamed vehicles, which broke the sound barrier that year. A Spitfire PR Mk XI (PL965) was of the type used in the 1944 RAE Farnborough dive tests during which it got the highest Mach Number of 0.92, was obtained, but not officially recorded. One of the highest recorded instrumented Mach Numbers attained for a propeller aircraft was the Mach 0.891 for a Spitfire PR XI flown during dive tests at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough in April 1944. On 25 April 1945, Hans Guido Mutke landed at Dübendorf, Switzerland, flying the Me262A-1a jet fighter, 'White 3', from 9. Staffel,Jagdgeschwader 7. He claimed that he got lost during a combat mission and landed there by mistake, although there were suspicions that he'd defected. The Swiss authorities never attempted to fly the plane, keeping it in storage and returning it to Germany on 30 August 1957. He sued the post-war German government, unsuccessfully, for the return of the plane, claiming it was his own property. Mutke also made the controversial claim that he broke the sound barrier in 1945 in an Me 262, but mainstream opinion continues to regard Chuck Yeager as the first person to achieve this milestone in 1947 in a Bell X-1. Some evidence presented by Mutke is on page 13 of the "Me 262 A-1 Pilot's Handbook" issued by Headquarters Air Materiel Command Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio as Report No. F-SU-1111-ND on January 10, 1946: The Luftwaffe test pilot Lothar Sieber (April 7, 1922 - March 1, 1945) may have inadvertently become the first man to break the sound barrier on 1 March 1945. This occurred while he was piloting a Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" for the first manned vertical takeoff of a rocket in history. In 55 seconds, he traveled a total of 14 km (8.7 miles). The aircraft crashed and he perished violently in this endeavor. In his 1990 book Me-163, former Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" pilot Mano Ziegler claims that his friend, test pilot Heini Dittmar, broke the sound barrier while diving the rocket plane, and that several people on the ground heard the sonic booms. He claims that on 6 July 1944, Dittmar, flying Me 163 B V18 VA + SP, was measured traveling at a speed of 1,130 km/h (702 mph). However, no evidence of such a flight exists in any of the materials from that period, which were captured by Allied forces and extensively studied. Heini Dittmar, flying an early "Komet" prototype in 1941, reached an officially measured speed of 1,004 kph in level flight. This was probably around Mach .95, but classified until after the war and the udsed altitude is unknown. Another unofficial report claims that Dittmar hit 1,130 kph in 1944 (Mach 1.06), and another states that in a steep dive he created sonic booms that were heard on the ground. In 1942, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Aviation began a top-secret project with Miles Aircraft to develop the world's first aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier. The project resulted in the development of the prototype Miles M.52 turbojet powered aircraft, which was designed to reach 1,000 mph (417 m/s; 1,600 km/h) (over twice the existing speed record) in level flight, and to climb to an altitude of 36,000 ft (11 km) in 1 minute 30 sec. After cancellation, the research was used to construct an unmanned missile that went on to achieve a speed of Mach 1.38, proving the idea to be scientifically valid. The UK merged it's data and 90% complete project work in to the similar American project, also started in 1942, in 1944 on the promise of data and technology sharing after the Americans has started actual test flights and engine rig-up tests. They did share the information with the UK afterwards. If it had not had the British input then they would have probably not made it in 1947 and struggled on for several more years before going aloft. George Welch with breaking the sound barrier in the XP-86 in a dive six months later on April 26, 1948, with official measurements and a proper Mach indicator on board. Jackie Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier on May 18, 1953, in a Canadair Sabre, with Yeager as her wingman. By the 1950s, new aircraft designs routinely "broke" the sound barrier.
- Three airframes, with US Air Force serials 46-062, 46-063 and 46-064, were built under the terms of contract W33-038-ac-9183, which had been signed on March 16 1945. The three aircraft, which originally carried the XS (Experimental Supersonic) designation, would be used to explore the transonic speed envelope wherein an object transitions from subsonic to supersonic flight, with emphasis on the affects on stability and control experienced during supersonic flight.
- The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army Air Forces-U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by the Bell Aircraft Company. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built during 1945, it reached nearly 1,000 mph (1,600 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 1,600 mph (2,575 km/h) in 1954. The X-1 was the first airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight and was the first of the so-called X-planes, a series of American experimental rocket planes designated for testing of new technologies and often kept secret.
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