posted 11-20-2021 12:45 PM               

Space Cover 630: X-1 Rocket Flight at 75

Seventy-five years ago next month, the famous X-1 rocketplane (then called the XS-1) first flew under rocket power. The flight happened on December 9, 1946 and was announced to the public the next day. This Philip Dockter cachet was postmarked at Edwards AFB on the 50th anniversary of the announcement and was signed by the X-1 pilot for the flight, Bell test pilot Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin. These were sold for (a very reasonable) $10 each in 1996-97 to help raise construction funds for the Air Force Flight Test Museum at Edwards.

Prior to this flight, the X-1 had flown a battery of glide flights in the hands of Bell test pilot Jack Woolams at Pine Castles Field near Orlando, FL where an engine-less X-1 was dropped from a B-29 bomber to test its' landing characteristics. Once the rocket engine was available, it was put into the X-1 which was then moved to Muroc Field. CA (now Edwards AFB). Goodlin performed several glide flights in it before finally being able to light the engine on December 9, 1946. On this flight he initially lit only one of the four chambers of the engine at a time and barely noticed any acceleration. The second part of the flight involved lighting all four chambers at once, and Goodlin described that as a "real kick in the pants!" Seconds after lighting all four chambers, the fire light came on, causing Goodlin to quickly shut down the engine and land the rocketplane.

Goodlin flew several more rocket-powered tests of the X-1, then the flying was turned over to Army pilot Chuck Yeager (a story in itself), who broke the speed of sound in the X-1 on October 14, 1947.