CHUCK YEAGER'S X-4 BANTAM EXPERIMENTAL 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: 10  INCHES
LENGTH: 10  INCHES

Item Number:    AA953932CY                                                                                               Price:    $219.95

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Historical Note:    The Bantam took to the air for the first time on 16 December 1948 with Northrop test pilot Chuck Tucker at the controls. The X-4 was designed to test the tailless, or semi-tailless, configuration at transonic speeds of approximately Mach .85. Numerous aerodynamicists had concluded that by doing away with  horizontal tail surfaces, transonic aircraft problems caused by the interaction of supersonic airflows from the horizontal tail surfaces and wings, would be solved. There were two aircraft produced for this program with tail numbers being 46-676 and 46-677. The Northrop Company made thirty flights before turning this aircraft over to the Air Force where their top test pilot Chuck Yeager made a number of test flights. After completing their tests and evaluations of the X-4 it was transferred to NACA. The X-4 would go on to make a total of one-hundred and thirty-one fights  most o9f which were done in ship #2 (46-677), while ship #1 remained in reserve as a parts bin. The program would net NACA and the aviation community with a great deal of information on tailless flight. It would make its last flight on 29 September 1953 after which ship #2 was placed on display at the U.S. Air Force Academy. However, in early 2001 it was again returned to Edwards and is being restored for display there!