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Lent by Dryden Flight Research Center
Engineers used this steel model to illustrate the effects of inertial
coupling or the damage created by multiple modes of vibration within the
airframe. This plane is a variant of the famous X-1 that first broke the
sound barrier of Mach 1 on October 14, 1947. The rocket-powered X-1B
made its first powered flight on October 8, 1954. Its maximum speed was
1650 miles per hour and it could fly as high as 90,000 feet. As with the
X-1 and many X-planes to follow, it was carried aloft by a larger
airplane and then released when rocket power was applied. Under maximum
throttle this power lasted less than five minutes, after which the plane
was then piloted down to earth in a glide.
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