by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, but the X-3 has looks that surely only its designer could love. It wasn’t just hit by the ugly stick, it was the ugly stick. But ugly isn’t only skin deep, the X-3 had another ugly secret waiting to be found....
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
The development and flying of the Bell X-1 was no picnic, but in the newly formed USAF’s hands it raced through test objectives: breaking records, setting standards and un-shrouding the mysteries of supersonic flight. By the end of the forties, it, and aircraft...