X-1E Credit - NASA

The X-1E was designed to test an ultra-thin 4% thickness to cord wing for supersonic flight.

Main Engine: LR-8-RM-5.

• 1955 December 12 - X-1E Flight 2 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 1. Glide flight for pilot check-out and low speed evaluation.

• 1955 December 15 - X-1E Flight 3 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 2. First powered flight. Engine ran at excessive pressure, 4 overspeeds of turbopump and 2 automatic shutdowns. Power terminated by pilot.

• 1955 December 3 - X-1E Flight 1 -

  Captive flight.

• 1956 April 3 - X-1E Flight 4 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 3. Mach 0.85 at 9150 m. Damping characteristics good; number 1 cylinder failed to fire.

• 1956 April 30 - X-1E Flight 5 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 4. Turbopump did not start; no engine operation.

• 1956 August 31 - X-1E Flight 10 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 9. Mach 2.0 at 18300 m. Sideslips, pulses, rolls.

• 1956 July 26 - X-1E Flight 9 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 8. Subsonic because cylinders 3 and 4 world not fire.

• 1956 June 18 - X-1E Flight 8 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 7. Mach 1.74 at 18300 m. Damaged on landing.

• 1956 June 7 - X-1E Flight 7 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 6. Mach 1.55 at 13725 m. Longitudinal and lateral trim changes in transonic region found annoying to pilot.

• 1956 May 11 - X-1E Flight 6 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 5. Wind-up turns to Clmas from mach 0.69 to 0.84; also control pulses.

• 1956 November 20 - X-1E Flight 14 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 13. No engine operation, ignition failure due to lack of manifold pressure.

• 1956 October 3 - X-1E Flight 13 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 12. Only 60-sec rocket operation; intermittent pump operation. Flight aborted, turbopump and engine replaced.

• 1956 September 14 - X-1E Flight 11 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 10. Mach 2.1 at 18910 m. Stabilizer, rudder, and aileron pulses.

• 1956 September 20 - X-1E Flight 12 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 11. Brief engine power only; flight aborted, unspecified engine malfunction.

• 1957 April 25 - X-1E Flight 15 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 14. Mach 1.71 at 20435 m. Aileron and rudder pulses.

• 1957 May 15 - X-1E Flight 16 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 15. Mach 2.0 at 22,265 m. Aileron pulses and rolls, sideslips, and wind-up turns. Plane severely damaged upon landing.

• 1957 October 8 - X-1E Flight 18 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 17. Mach 2.24.

• 1957 September 19 - X-1E Flight 17 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 16. Planned mach number not attained, loss of power during pushover from climb.

• 1958 June 10 - X-1E Flight 20 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 19. Flight aborted after only 1 cylinder of engine fired. Plane damaged on landing.

• 1958 May 14 - X-1E Flight 19 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 18. First flight with ventral fins; longitudinal and lateral stability and control maneuvers. Engine airstart made at 21,350 m.

• 1958 November 6 - X-1E Flight 27 - Crew: McKay.

  NACA flight 26. Elevated chamber pressure; low-altitude and low-mach investigation of U-Deta fuel. Last NASA flight.

• 1958 October 16 - X-1E Flight 25 - Crew: McKay.

  NACA flight 24. First flight with elevated chamber pressure; cut short because overcast obscured pilot's view of lakebed.

• 1958 October 28 - X-1E Flight 26 - Crew: McKay.

  NACA flight 25. Elevated chamber pressure; good stability and control data gathered.

• 1958 September 10 - X-1E Flight 21 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 20. Stability and control investigation with ventral fins.

• 1958 September 17 - X-1E Flight 22 - Crew: Walker Joseph.

  NACA flight 21. Stability and control with ventral fins and a new stabilizer bell crank permitting greater stabilizer travel.

• 1958 September 19 - X-1E Flight 23 - Crew: McKay.

  NACA flight 22. Checkout flight for John McKay.

• 1958 September 30 - X-1E Flight 24 - Crew: McKay.

  NACA flight 23. Check of low-speed stability and control.

• Miller, Ron, The Dream Machines, Krieger, Malabar, Florida, 1993. ISBN: 0894640399. Sensational chronological roundup of text, photos, and sketches of virtually every spacecraft and launch vehicle design every conceived but never built. A gold mine for space-struck baby boomers. More at amazon.com...

• Zhelyez x-plane book, .

• NASA Report, NASA Factsheet FS-083-DFRC X-1E, . Accessed at: http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/FactSheets/PDF/FS-083-DFRC.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!