Already in the middle of the Second World War, it became clear that the future of combat aviation was jet propulsion. Therefore, in 1943, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) began the MX-524 program to overcome the sound barrier. A year later, Bell Aircraft received a contract for the construction of the X-1 aircraft. On December 9, 1946, the first flight of the experimental Bell X-1 aircraft with a running engine.
The X-1 was a mid-plane with a retractable landing gear. It was equipped with a Reaction Motors XLR11-RM-3 rocket engine with a thrust of 27 kN. The maximum speed was 2594 km/ h, there was enough fuel for 5 minutes of flight.
The flight with the engine running was preceded by launches of the aircraft as a glider from the carrier - bomber Boeing B-29 Superfortress. On October 14, 1947, pilot Charles "Chuck" Yeager (Chuck Yeager) developed a speed of 1066 km/h on the X-1, exceeding the speed of sound for the first time. A total of 7 Bell X-1 aircraft were built as part of the MX524 program.
