by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
The facts, fiction, and body of knowledge the X-15 generated is enormous. School kids should be taught about it as one of the great things the US should be proud of. In fact, I do bring it up with them, but (contrary to what you may have heard) I do have some sympathy...
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
Colonel John Stapp died in 1999 at the age of 89. An amazingly old age given what he put his body through in those 89 years. John Stapp joined the USAF and studied the biophysical effects of flight. Not just the cruising back and forth stuff, the violent...
by Nigel Blackwell | Planes
Piloting the X-1 beyond the speed of sound was an accomplishment of skill, bravery and dedication. And when Chuck Yeager pushed passed Mach 1 the newly formed Air Force pushed just as hard to pick up every opportunity for publicity it could. Thing is, the Air Force...
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...