Welcome to my American X-Planes series, where we cover the significance of each aircraft in the decades-spanning X-plane Series. Part one discusses the first generation X-1, but we will go over the ...

The X-1’s fuselage was designed to resemble a .50 caliber bullet—one of the only shapes known to have stable flight at supersonic speeds. The Bell X-1 hangs today from the ceiling of the National Air ...