#bell x-2

[stone-cold-groove]

The Bell X-2 experimental aircraft.

[lonestarflight]

"Wreckage of the X-2 rocket plane was taken to NACA's High Speed Flight Station for analysis following the 1956 crash that killed Air Force pilot Capt. Mel Apt

The X-2, initially an Air Force program, was scheduled to be transferred to the civilian National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) for scientific research. The Air Force delayed turning the aircraft over to the NACA in the hope of attaining Mach 3 in the airplane. The service requested and received a two-month extension to qualify another Air Force test pilot, Capt. Miburn "Mel" Apt, in the X-2 and attempt to exceed Mach 3. After several ground briefings in the simulator, Apt (with no previous rocket plane experience) made his flight on 27 September 1956. Apt raced away from the B-50 under full power, quickly outdistancing the F-100 chase planes. At high altitude, he nosed over, accelerating rapidly. The X-2 reached Mach 3.2 (2,094 mph) at 65,000 feet. Apt became the first man to fly more than three times the speed of sound. Still above Mach 3, he began an abrupt turn back to Edwards. This maneuver proved fatal as the X-2 began a series of diverging rolls and tumbled out of control. Apt tried to regain control of the aircraft. Unable to do so, Apt separated the escape capsule. Too late, he attempted to bail out and was killed when the capsule impacted on the Edwards bombing range. The rest of the X-2 crashed five miles away. The wreckage of the X-2 rocket plane was later taken to NACA's High Speed Flight Station for analysis."

Date: November 21, 1956

NASA ID: E56-2685

[lonestarbattleship]

"The Golden Age of Test Flight" by Mike Machat.

Aircraft tested at the Edwards Air Force Base.

Top row: Bell X-1, Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, Bell X-2, North American X-15, Space Shuttle Enterprise.

Second Row: Lockheed P-80 or T-33 Shooting Star, Boeing B-29 Super Fortress, North American F-86 Sabre, Boeing B-50 Super Fortress, North American F-100 Super Sabre, Boeing NB-52 Stratofortress, Northrop T-38 Talon, Boeing 747-100SR Mothership.

Third Row: Bell X-5, Douglas X-3 Stiletto, North American X-10, Northrop X-4 Bantam, Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing, North American XB-70A Valkyrie.

Fourth Row: Ryan X-13 Vertijet, Convair XFY Pogo, Lockheed NF-105 Starfighter, Martin X-24B, Piasecki H-21 Shawnee.

source

[humanoidhistory]

A Bell X-2 skids to a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, April 22, 1952.

[thetestpilots]

 Bell X-2

[lonestarflight]

Cutaway of the Bell X-2.

[humanoidhistory]

Test pilot Pete Everest with the Bell X-2 supersonic rocket plane on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, California, 1955.

[wiaterwieje]

Bell X-2 Starbuster

The Bell X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft designed to investigate the structural effects of aerodynamic heating as well as stability and control effectiveness at high speeds and altitudes. The program was 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.