CHUCK YEAGER'S BELL X-5 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: 8  INCHES
LENGTH: 13  INCHES

Item Number:    AA953949CY                                                                                               Price:    $219.95

Historical Note:    The X-5 was designed to investigate the "aerodynamic results, in free flight, of variable degrees of sweepback from 20-degrees to 60-degrees". It was also of great importance for the contractor to undertake the design and construction of a successful variable-sweep-wing mechanism. Of equal importance was the ability to determine, from flight test of the X-5, whether variable-sweep-wings were of practical use for future fighter design. It took to the air on 20 June 1951 with the Bell Company pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler at the controls. A near duplicate of the captured German MesserschmittP.1101, Bell had created two aircraft in this series, ships #1 (50-1838) and #2 (50-1839). However, improvements were made to the power plant- an Allison J-35-A-13A delivering 4,900 pounds of thrust and a better designed hinge system for the variable geometry main wing set. After the first seventeen flights by Bell, the aircraft was turned over to the Air Force where their most skilled pilots ran it through a series of tests. General (then Major) Chuck Yeager, a premier test pilot for the Air Force and first to break the sound barrier, conducted the test in this plane! Other noted Air Force test pilots that would fly and test this aircraft included: General Albert Boyd, Major Frank "Pete" Everst, Major Arthur "Kit" Murray, and Major Raymond Popson, who would be killed on his first flight in aircraft#2 while conducting aggravated stall tests. After completing their tests and evaluations of the X-5, it was transferred to NACA. The X-5's would go on to make a total of one-hundred and fifty-three flights most of which were done in ship #1 (50-1838 @ 127 flights). The last flight was made on 25 October 1955 by Neal Armstrong, after which the plane was moved to the U.S. Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH.