Near the end of World War II, the Flight Test Division of the U.S. Army Air Force teamed with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to research flight in the transonic speed range — or flight past the sound barrier. The joint partnership contracted with the Bell Aircraft Corporation of Buffalo, NY to build a test aircraft that would be used only for this research and never for mass production. This contract yielded three XS-1 aircraft, later shortened to X-1.
The Bell X-1 was modeled after the Browning .50 caliber bullet, which was known to be stable in supersonic flight. This seemingly simple design approach made for a clean looking aircraft, made extremely fast by the ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen fueled rocket engine providing thrust.
The X-1 first flew in a glide on January 25, 1946 over Pinecastle AAF near Orlando, FL by Bell chief pilot Jack Woolams. After the initial glide tests, the aircraft was taken back to Bell for preparation to conduct powered testing from Muroc Dry Lake in California… now known as Edwards Air Force Base. Before the flights began, Jack Woolams was killed in a crash while practicing for an air race. He was replaced by Bell pilot Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin who made 26 successful flights in both the XS-1 and X-1-1 until June 1947.
The Army Air Force became frustrated with the slow pace of the testing under Bell’s watch and took the contract to fly the X-1-2 from Bell and put it in the hands of NACA for testing.
On October 14th, the X-1-2 #46-062 piloted by Air Force Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager was dropped from the modified bomb bay of a Boeing B-50 Superfortress over Muroc and began flight #50 in the program. On that flight, the aircraft became the first manned aircraft to achieve supersonic flight — reaching a recorded speed of Mach 1.06 (807.2 mph). The aircraft, christened “Glamorous Glennis” after Yeager’s wife, successfully landed after the flight and was recorded in the history books. The story of the test program was the subject of the hit Hollywood film “The Right Stuff”.
The Bell X-1 #46-062 now hangs in the Milestones of Flight Gallery of the National Air & Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC on permanent display.
This colorful tattooed tribute to the historic aircraft was completed by artist Ant Iannucci of Ascension Tattoo in Orlando, FL.
Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.
Click the above image for the full-size photo.
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nick armbrister Says:
lol what can i say? excellent. i love aeroplanes and tattoos and have to myself an aeroprogress t-720 and northrop f-20 tigershark. well good. sent you the pics of mine hope you upload them. youre the best site on the net for this! im gonna tell my mates. nick.
Posted on August 27th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Tattoos in flight « Cakehead Loves Evil Says:
[...] Tattoos in flight is my new favourite tattoo niche blog – much geek art but really clever designs too such as the surreal butterfly above. With the tattoos broken down into really specific categories the site is a surprisingly handy historical resource too. It is certainly rare (and great) to find such a beautifully executed collection of inking in one place. [...]
Posted on October 8th, 2009 at 12:52 pm