CHUCK YEAGER'S X-3 ROCKET RESEARCH PLANE, HAND SIGNED!

Chuck Yeager logged over 10,000 hours in over 330 different types of aircraft including foreign and experimental rocket aircraft. In 1947, Yeager piloting the Bell X-1, broke Mach 1 at Muroc Air Base (now Edwards AFB). He continued to fly the X-1 as a research vehicle and checked out many other pilots in it. In 1953, he flew the Bell X-1A to break Mach 2 (Mach 2.435 or 1650 mph at 70,000 feet). He was the first American to test a captured Russian Mig 15. Among the many aircraft that he has flown are the F-86, F-100, X-1 (34 flights, X-3 (3 flights), X-4 (7 flights), F-80 accelerations tests, and chase for Jackie Cochran. During his years at Edwards AFB, Yeager served as Commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School.

SCALE: 1:32
W/S: 11  INCHES
LENGTH: 13 1/2  INCHES

Item Number:    AA953925CY                                                                                               Price:    $229.95

Historical Note:    The new generation X-1's were created to investigate aerodynamic phenomenon above Mach 2 and above 90,000 feet. They were to serve as the next logical step beyond the original three X-1's and they would also be utilized to explore more esoteric segments of High-Mach, high altitude envelope such as aerodynamic heating, pilot actuated reaction control systems, supersonic armament problems, and miscellaneous high-speed, high-altitude aerodynamic phenomenon. The first of these aircraft took to the air on 24 July 1951. Piloted by Jean "Skip" Ziegler, a Bell Company test pilot, the plane was taken through its first seven flights to test for and insure air-worthiness and then turned over to the Air Force. The first Air Force test pilot assigned to conduct tests in this aircraft was General (then Major) Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager. In his capable hands he took this aircraft on 12 December 1953 to a record speed, he underwent a never before experienced phenomenon called inertia coupling. This phenomenon set the aircraft and him inverted and spinning out of control at super Mach speeds. However, he was able to regain his faculties and exercise his extraordinary flying skills in bringing the plane back under control and safely back to a landing at Edwards AFB. In fact, at the same time of this writing,  this record breaking flight and Yeager's piloting skills are still held in the highest regards and are used in the teaching curriculum at most schools for test piloting in the world. The new generation X-1's would go on to make fifty-three flights including an unofficial altitude record of over 90,000 feet on 26 August 1954, weapons testing, and studies in high speed heating. The last flight by Neal Armstrong, (later to be the first man to walk on the moon), on 5 January 1958.