That Last X-1 Flight... | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.07.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.08.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Tue, Mar 25, 2003

That Last X-1 Flight...

Last week, we unleashed a deluge of answers to our question: When was the last X-1 flight, and where -- and who flew it?

Although a lot of you (hundreds, actually) got it right, the first correct and complete answer came from longtime ANN Reader Nelson Tirado:

"The last flight of a Bell X-1 occurred on the 7th of November, 1958, when Jack McKay flew the X-1E over the Mojave Desert at the NASA High-Speed Flight Station (HSFS), now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC). The X-1E is now on display in front of Building 4800 at DFRC."

Oh -- and its first flight was December 12, 1955. The super-thin wing (roughly half as thick as the original X-1's, at under 3½ inches), allowed much-higher speeds than the predecessor craft.

One other thing: earlier that year (January 23), one Neil A. Armstrong retired another example...

FMI: www.dfrc.nasa.gov

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Prelim: Piper PA-23

Pilot Also Reported That Due To A Fuel Leak, The Auxiliary Fuel Tanks Were Not Used On June 4, 2025, at 13:41 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-23, N2109P, was substantially damage>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: One Man’s Vietnam

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): Reflections on War’s Collective Lessons and Cyclical Nature The exigencies of war ought be colorblind. Inane social-constructs the likes of racis>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Capella Aircraft Corp FW1C50

Pilot Reported That He Was Unfamiliar With The Single Seat Amateur-Built Airplane And His Intent Was To Perform High-Speed Taxi Testing Analysis: The pilot reported that he was unf>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Timber Tiger Touts Curtiss Jenny Replicas

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): First Kits to Ship October 2023 Having formerly resurrected the storied shape of the Ryan ST—in effigy, anyway—Montrose, Colorado-based Tim>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.04.25): Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO]

Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO] Area navigation based on performance requirements for aircraft operating along an ATS route, on an instrument approach procedure or in a d>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC