Parallel development
In 1942, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Aviation began a top secret project with Miles Aircraftto develop the world's first aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier. The project

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Bell Aircraft chief test pilot Jack Woolams became the first person to fly the XS-1. He made a glide-flight over Pinecastle Army Airfield, in

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Later variants of the X-1 were built to test different aspects of supersonic flight; one of these, the X-1A, with Yeager at the controls, inadvertently demonstrated a very dangerous

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• X-1-1, Air Force Serial Number 46-062, is currently displayed in the Milestones of Flight gallery of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, alongside the Spirit of St. Louis and SpaceShipOne. The aircraft was flown to Washington, D.C., beneath a B-29 and

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Data from Bell Aircraft since 1935, The X-Planes: X-1 to X-45
General characteristics
• Crew: 1

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• Mach number
• XS-1 (spacecraft)
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
• Miles M.52

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• Bell X-1B – National Museum of the United States Air Force
• X-1 fiftieth anniversary – NASA

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