X-1 AIRPLANE: Beginning in 1946, two XS-1 experimental research aircraft (later redesignated X-1s) conducted pioneering tests at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base) in California to obtain flight data on conditions in the transonic speed range. These early tests culminated on October 14, 1947, in the first piloted flight faster than Mach 1.0, the speed of sound. The XS-1 was the first high-speed aircraft built purely for aviation research purposes. The model was never intended for production. The XS-1 was designed largely in accordance with specifications provided by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) [now National Aeronautics and Space Administration], paid for by the Army Air Forces, and built by Bell Aircraft Inc. The XS-1 #2 (serial number 46-063) was flight tested by the NACA to provide design data for later production high-performance aircraft. The research techniques used in the X-1 program became the pattern for all subsequent X-craft projects. The NACA X-1 procedures and personnel also helped lay the foundation of America's space program in the 1960s. The X-1 project defined and solidified the post-war cooperative union between U.S. military needs, industrial capabilities, and research facilities. The flight data collected by the NACA in the X-1 tests then provided a basis for American aviation supremacy in the latter half of the 20th century.
LIFTING BODY PROGRAM: Between 1963 and 1975, eight lifting-body configurations were flown at the NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB. They varied tremendously from the unpowered, bulbous, lightweight plywood M2-F1 to the rocket-powered, extra-sleek, all-metal supersonic X-24B. Some configurations, such as the M2-F2, not only pushed the limits of both design engineers and test pilots but also were dangerous to fly. Film footage of the 1967 crash of the M2-F2, after test pilot Bruce Peterson lost control of this particularly "angry machine," was used about two years later as the lead-in to weekly episodes of a popular television series, The Six-Million-Dollar Man, which ran for about six years. Although the M2-F2 crash was spectacular enough to inspire the concept for a popular television series, it was the only serious accident that occurred over the slightly more than twelve years of lifting-body flight-testing. But danger has always lurked at the edge of flight innovation. All eight of these wingless wonders, the lifting bodies, were considered the flying prototypes for future spacecraft that could land like an airplane after the searing heat of reentry from outer space. The precursors of today's Shuttle, the lifting bodies provided the technical and operational engineering data that has shaped the space transportation systems of today and tomorrow
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