Monday, Apr. 09, 1951
Engineer's Problem
According to skyside gossip, two new experimental rocket planes are being built for the Air Force. One is the Bell X2, an improvement on the X1, in which Test Pilot Chuck Yeager first flew faster than sound (TIME, April 18, 1949). The X2, rumored for a long time, may be ready for testing this year. Current guesses give it a top speed of 2,500 m.p.h., at an altitude of 200,000 ft. (38 miles). Even more radical is the X3, which Douglas is said to be developing. Powered with a ramjet and a rocket motor as well as a conventional turbojet engine, it is expected to have a ceiling of 300,000 ft. (57 miles).
Both the X-2 and the X-3 will have to include some striking changes in aircraft design. The thin air at extreme altitudes will require novel wing shapes. Also, the enormous quoted speeds (comparable to the top speed of a plunging V-2 rocket) may heat the wings and fuselage above the yield point of metals like aluminum. Engineers also have another big problem: how to keep a pilot functioning in an airplane designed to go above the stratosphere. Presumably, that, too, has its solution on the drawing board.
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