Iwan

The Bell X-1

Bell X-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

Vampire?

ChefDude

Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - First Supersonic Jet

andys

dilberate or accidentally?

Shark Man

The Swallow?

It was pushing this plane to its extreme limits that caused it to crash and kill Geoff de Havilland, as he the lost ability to control the plane's direction - a characteristic now found to a be cruicial factor in supersonic flight, as the flight control surfaces for normal flight wouldn't work the same in supersonic flight.

Well, thats what they said on Discovery

hodgy0_2

"as the flight control surfaces for normal flight wouldn't work the same in supersonic flight."


hence the need for swept back and delta wings I think

could be wrong (often am)

Leslie

You must be joking. We used to call it the clockwork mouse. It was one of the few aircraft that could do a loop at over 30K feet though.

It might have been the Supermarine Swift as the first Brit aircraft, but I cannot remember for certain.

You can get a Hawk to go supersonic if you point it straight down from a great height with the engine flat out-but not for very long.

Les

scunnered

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Actually the history of supersonic flight can be traced back to the British Miles M.52. If it was not cancelled before its completion, it would have been possible for it to achieve mach 1.5. This experimental design had many radical new features still used today.
Shortly after the end of the war the top secret Miles M52 project was 90% completed when the then Labour government pulled the plug on the project. All the research data was then given to the US Gov. The Bell Aircraft Co. were given all the M52 data because of their problems with their own experimental prototypes. Using this research, they were then able to design the XS-1 prototype, which was the forerunner of the X-1.

Jamie

Captain Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 in 1947 am i too late ?

scunnered

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You certainly didn't break any speed record!

Janspeed

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Spitfires were known to perform VNE dives and go supersonic, some did not live to tell the story...............................

Leslie

I very much doubt that they went supersonic, too much drag from the prop for a start, but they were thought to get shockwaves forming and the ones on the tailplane could cause control effect reversal as the elevator was moved causing fore and aft movement of the shockwaves. The resultant unusual behaviour of the controls could well cause a pilot to lose control. I did have control reversal once and it was a bit of a worry at the time!

Les

Janspeed

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There were a couple of (lies?) stories that were told by one of the founders of the Red Arrows who was a QFI that I flew with a few times, and he said that it was more than likely that a few of the Spits flew transonic/supersonic when avoiding/diving Me-109s over the channel.

Leslie

They might have got close to transonic but remembering how you had to work at it to get a Hawk to go supersonic I would be surprised. They could certainly get shockwaves on the flying controls at subsonic speeds since the airflow would speed up as it passed over the thickish section wings and tailplane.

Many of the older aircraft I have flown use to start "jiggling about" a bit at speeds of 0.8 mach or thereabouts.

Was that Ray Hannah who you flew with?

Les

Janspeed

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It was Lee Jones.

Dunno if he is still about, he was 70 about 10 years ago......and still flying!

Leslie

I only remember Ernie Jones. He was on the same flying instructor's course as me at Little Rissington and he was the bloke who gave me a ride on a Red Arrows display at Plymouth. He would be a good bit younger than that though.

Les

Janspeed

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Lee Jones started with the Black Arrows......and he flew Spits in '46

Leslie

I remember the Black Arrows doing a 16 plane loop at Farnborough, quite a sight!

I nearly flew the Rolls Royce Spit some years ago but the arrangement fell through at the last minute-never got the chance again

Les

DaveD

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The RR spit is parked-up in a hangar opposite my office. Our Chief Test Pilot takes it out for a spin occasionally. It's actually part of his job description that he has to fly it on a semi-regular basis to keep it fully operational

Leslie

If he is the same chap-he used to come to Pershore when I was there in it because he was a mate of the Wingco Flying, and they used to do a bit of instrument flying practise for the day in a Canberra. I asked if I could have a go in it next time and he said of course! The Wingco got posted and he never came again so that was that! Life is full of disappointments. Doubt if he is the same bloke now though.

Les

Janspeed

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Hint, hint!

DaveD

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We know him by his initials - POD!

Not sure how long he's been in the job, although it must be a few years.

noobyscooby

I had one of the airfields, Minworth near Brum, that Amy Johnson and other brave ladies flew new aircraft from to operational airfields.

I discovered that the aircraft were not armed until they got to their new squadron so the girls only had their speed and low-level flying skills to defend themselves if jumped by a Hun.

Because of my interest, I got to meet Jeffrey Quill who was an original pre-war Spitfire/Supermarine test pilots.

Apparently some of the girls could get well over 550mph in an emergency dive because the plane was light with only delivery fuel on board, a pilot who weighed about 66% of a male pilot, no ammo, no seat armour and no guns. Also having no guns meant there were no breaches in the leading edges of the wings so it was more aerodynamic too.

If you are interested in the performance of the Mark IX visit:

Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXe

The other thing many people don't realise is that the later Spitfires only had 10 second of machine gun and 20 seconds of cannon ammo on board so the pilot had to remember, in the heat of a dog fight, how many times he had pressed the tit [and very briefly too, I might add] because you had to keep at least two "squirts" in reserve in case you got jumped by the Hun as you went back to your airfield.