Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (USAF Photo) A U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52F-70-BW Stratofortress (s/n 57-0162, nicknamed “Casper The Friendly Ghost”) from the 320th Bomb Wing dropping Mk 117 750 lb (340 kg) bombs over Vietnam. This aircraft was the first B-52F used to test conventional bombing in 1964, and later dropped the 50,000th bomb of the “Arc … Read more
Boeing X-32 (USAF Photo) Boeing Joint Strike Fighter X-32B demonstrator lifting off on its maiden flight from the company’s facility in Palmdale, California, 18 September 2000. The Boeing X-32 is a concept demonstrator aircraft that was designed for the Joint Strike Fighter competition. It lost to the Lockheed Martin X-35 demonstrator, which was further developed … Read more
Bell X-22A (US Army Photo) Bell X-22A V/STOL Research Airplane (Serial No. 151521), currently in the Niagara Aerospace Museum, Niagara Falls, New York, on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation. The Bell X-22 is an American V/STOL X-plane with four tilting ducted fans. Takeoff was to selectively occur either with the propellers tilted vertically … Read more
Bell X-5 (USAF Photo) The Bell X-5 was the first aircraft capable of changing the sweep of its wings in flight. It was inspired by the untested wartime P.1101 design of the German Messerschmitt company. In contrast with the German design, which could only have its wing sweepback angle adjusted on the ground, the Bell engineers … Read more
X-planes (NACA Photo) Bell X-1 being released from Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The X-planes are a series of experimental United States aircraft and rockets, used to test and evaluate new technologies and aerodynamic concepts. They have an X designator within the US system of aircraft designations, which denotes the experimental research mission.Not all US experimental aircraft have … Read more
Bell X-2 Starbuster (NACA Photo) The Bell X-2 (nicknamed “Starbuster”) was an X-plane research aircraft built to investigate flight characteristics in the Mach 2–3 range. The X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft developed jointly in 1945 by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the United States Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to explore … Read more
North American XB-70A Valkyrie (USAF Photo) North American XB-70A Valkyrie. The futuristic XB-70A was originally conceived in the 1950s as a high-altitude, nuclear strike bomber that could fly at Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound). At that time, any potential enemy would have been unable to defend against such a bomber. By the early … Read more
(USAF Photo) North American XP-82 Twin Mustang (Serial No. 44-83887), on a test flight over the Sierras, 1945. The North American F-82 Twin Mustang is the last American piston-engined fighter ordered into production by the United States Air Force. Based on the North American P-51 Mustang, the F-82 was originally designed as a long-range escort fighter … Read more
