TOWARD THE UNEXPLORED

[Music] [Applause] 27 September 1956 a four-engine bomber cruising at 30,000 feet in the California sky suspended from its bomb bay an experimental airplane and its pilot we are looking at preparations for the last flight of this airplane we are looking at the last few moments of this man's lifetime [Music] this plane is a new breed the only one of its kind handmade ten years in the building this is the Bell x2 rocket plane at 9:30 the bomber will release it a few seconds later it's rockets will ignite and a young captain of the United States Air Force will fly faster than any human being has ever flown for a little more than two minutes he will live as no man has ever lived [Music] [Music] death for the pilot of the x2 starts here at a complex of landing strips fashioned from the desert a flight test center at Edwards Air Force Base California here the planes of today are tested and made ready for operation with the fighting services the planes of tomorrow wait tensely for their moment in the sky they are experiments none of them designed to carry a weapon of war but only to probe the unknown to penetrate the mysteries of space their mission is research their goal the unexplored the first to love air research as the wind tunnel a man-made sample of the air above at his laboratories in California Ohio and Virginia scientists of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics duplicate some of the conditions of flying by forcing air at controlled speed past the stationary object in the tunnel the same relative effect is achieved as a flying the object through the air the stream of air invisible to the naked eye is measured engaged by special instruments and recording devices a remarkable process called slurring photography the cords high-speed winds and visual terms the human eye can perceive and understand if the shock wave striking a supersonic projector could be seen this is what they would look like this is how the air strikes a plane flying faster than sound slurring photographs of various wing shapes confirm basic principles about the fluid quality of air and of its effect on aircraft passing through it measuring these previously invisible qualities by the slurring process provides clues to efficient design of aerodynamic shapes [Music] aerodynamic heating is today's most serious obstacle to high-speed flight at supersonic speeds temperatures of 300 degrees and more are generated around the airplane the higher the speed the higher the temperature and NACA engineers study the effect of extreme heat on various shapes and materials to learn which will best penetrate and survive the thermal thicket from such investigation a new dilemma in design has emerged aerodynamic conditions favour a sharp nose for speed but the fast to the airplane the more heat is generated and a blunt nose is more resistant to high temperatures than a sharp one a long investigative process to learn the nature of hair and its effect on planes is one of theory discovery and proof a frequent method of corroboration is the use of powerless missiles filled with instruments to measure aerodynamic effects and dropped from aircraft FIF Jews [Music] telemeter een devices on the ground traced the course of the missile so that instruments can be recovered and studied for the information they have registered to gather data in higher speed ranges power is added a rocket engine capable of speeds near the speed of sound [Music] instruments recovered from such missiles were in fact able to predict the possibility of piloted supersonic flight the possibility of hypersonic flight is tested flight at 5 10 20 times the speed of sound scale models of current operational aircraft are loaded with instruments that record structural stresses speed altitude deceleration and the effect of the thermal thick powerful rockets launched these models at speeds many times those possible in manned aircraft the models are not recoverable but the instruments automatically relay their information back to ground stations for automatic computation many gaps in our knowledge of the air are filled in with such basic tools of research but eventually each advance in theory must be proved by practical tests here full size wings designed according to principles observed and developed in laboratories are tested for stress and strain on rocket sleds at supersonic speeds the ultimate an aerodynamic exploration that speeds near or beyond the speed of sound is the research airplane closely guarded secrets these airplanes have been specially built to exceed known aircraft performance to test new ideas and design to gather information about the air they are flying laboratories research tools only but each requires a pilot each in the performance of its mission demands the risk of a human life the bell x-1 powered by a four-barrel rocket engine its body design based on the symmetry of a 50 caliber bullet x1 was the first airplane to fly through the sound barrier in level flight the Douglas skyrocket rocket-powered burst to reach a speed of Mach to twice the speed of sound the bell x-1 a which flew to a record 1,650 miles per hour into an altitude of 19,000 feet the douglas x3 powered by two turbojet engines designed to investigate sustained jet-powered flight in the supersonic speed ranges the very thin straight wing of the needlenose x3 was a revolution in design that was soon to be adopted by the air force in a combat plane the Lockheed f-104 starfighter which itself has become a research plane the study heat problems and sustained supersonic flight northrop's fly-in wing the x4 which investigated the stability of a tailless airplane the Mel x5 constructed with movable wings to explore the problems of wings sweep angles and through its performance paved the way for development of today's swept wing aircraft [Music] [Music] most ambitious of the explains is the bell x2 sleek hand made of stainless steel the only one of its kind x2 has been constructed to test the problems of aerodynamic heating the thermal thicket and after ten years in the making it is ready for its first powered flight in late 1955 prior to flight the x2 will be thoroughly ground tested this is to be a dress rehearsal for actual flight during the tie down test the x2 will be firmly anchored to concrete to prevent a runaway [Applause] as in preparations for a flight the fuel truck pumps thousands of gallons of alcohol into the fuel tanks separate tanks are filled with liquid oxygen the air supply for the engine liquid oxygen is coal almost 300 degrees below zero with the engine in operation the oxygen will be combined with the alcohol or combustion engine to fire [Music] three [Applause] the x2 is ready to fly but how fast how high how much heat will it stand no one knows before turning the plane over to the NACA for the main experimental phase the Air Force prepares a series of tests to establish the X 2's performance limits [Applause] Lieutenant Colonel Pete Everest veteran Air Force test pilot will take the x2 on its maiden powered flight [Applause] this is the payoff theory and laboratory tests are behind now a man sits in the cockpit of an untried airplane and makes it do what it was built to do vision from the cockpit is poor landings are blind Everest takes directions from the pilot of a chase plane who tells him when to touch down [Music] [Applause] in eight flights Everest carefully nurses the x2 step by step to faster and faster speeds higher altitudes until in mid summer of 1956 he establishes a new record of 1900 miles per hour on August 3rd 1956 a new pilot relieves Everest in the x2 flight test program his captain Ivan Kichler a Korean War ace and engineer equipped by education and special training to fly into the unknown regions of space [Music] on September 7th 1956 he establishes a new altitude record of 126 thousand feet almost 24 miles above the earth the highest man has ever been through the summer of 1956 walk in slow train to undertake his phase of the test program another pilot captain Milburn apt was also being briefed hand-picked to alternate with Kincheloe because of his engineering background and his remarkable record in testing combat planes now left is to fly the x2 on its 13th flight he will fly it only once [Music] the date is 27 September 1956 this is a routine flight performance test the x2 will not take off under its own power but will be carried to an altitude of 30,000 feet by a b---fifty mothership in order to conserve its limited rocket fuel for actual flight testing the B 50 is raised on hydraulic jacks the x2 is wheeled under it and the mother plane is lowered again to engage the research plane beneath its Bombay [Music] [Applause] all secure the two planes are mated and the X 2 will remain beneath the Bombay into a captain app signals the b-fifty pilot to release [Music] the time is 8:15 app has helped into a pressure suit and specially designed help the b-fifty crew makes ready [Music] [Music] until the b---fifty is airborne aft will ride alone in the bubble nose if he thinks at all about danger perhaps this is the time in a few moments he will be too busy to think of anything but flying the x2 [Music] go ahead bell winds Southwest 7/3 for takeoff over [Music] the time 8:35 inside the b-58 technicians are performing the dangerous job of topping the X 2's fuel tanks with highly combustible liquid oxygen and alcohol altitude 7,000 feet apt is in the cockpit of the x2 they have a canopy able to withstand heat to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit is lower than long a chase plane piloted by iven Kincheloe takes position pilots and technicians are methodically running through a checklist of over 200 items fuel system electrical system hydraulics after checking off the X 2's control surfaces in slow and the chase plane observes and confirms their operation time 9:30 altitude 30,000 feet the pilot of the beat that day removes the safety pin from the drop handle [Music] we can drop you anytime [Music] there is one chance in a thousand that the x2 will fly a perfect flight but the drop from the mother plane is perfect so is app's reaction time the rocket fuel will burn six seconds longer than expected for the first time during the x2 test program everything goes according to plan within seconds afters beyond the speed of sound and climbing to seventy thousand people [Music] the air temperature outside the plane is minus 65 degrees but the temperature rise due to aerodynamic heating relayed by instruments in the plane to automatic computers on the ground is recorded as more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit aft as well into the thermal thick there's no sensation of speed at this altitude only his Mach meter tells apt that he is approaching twice the speed of sound over 1,300 miles per hour and still increasing speed macht 2 point 5 to point 7 Mach 3 3 times the speed of sound the temperature of the x2 is now recorded as over 600 degrees Fahrenheit [Music] automatic devices continue to trace the course of the x2 a speed is now mach 3.1 3.2 3.3 2178 miles per hour and apt in the x2 is no longer in sight his radio is silent he has far outdistanced the chase plane radar has lost him now he is making history alone out of sight in the last few moments of his life two minutes and 20 seconds after the beginning of the flight deck Stu's rocket engines stopped the fuel is gone six seconds later apt turns for his glide back to the base his turn is too soon at too high a speed and the x2 goes out of control it pitches violently and begins to fall [Music] [Music] the x2 was not the first experimental plane to be lost mell apt was the 13th test pilot to die at Edwards Air Force Base since 1950 but the deaths of these men are not without meaning for each pilot is a bridge between the past and the future today new planes are being ready they will fly higher faster than the x2 another men like Mel app will push back the frontiers of space a little more in some day the X 50 or the X 100 of the X 1000 will meet the promise of today we will build a plane that will take us on even to the star [Music]