Bell Aircraft Corporation
2 types ยท 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Narrative coming soon.
Aircraft Types
Bell X-2 Starbuster
A swept-wing, rocket-powered research aircraft built by Bell Aircraft Corporation for the U.S. Air Force and the NACA, designed to explore aerodynamic heating and stability and control beyond the X-1's regime. Its two airframes flew from 1952 to 1956: one was destroyed by an explosion over Lake Ontario in 1953, and the other reached 126,200 feet and then Mach 3.196 in September 1956, before inertial coupling destroyed it on that final flight and killed its pilot.
Bell X-5
A variable-sweep research aircraft built by Bell Aircraft Corporation for the U.S. Air Force and the NACA, developed from the captured Messerschmitt P.1101 to test changing wing sweep in flight. Two aircraft flew from 1951 to 1955: one was lost in a fatal spin accident in 1953, and the other made 122 NACA flights before going to the Air Force Museum in 1958.