history making drop

The Bell X-1 was a rocket-powered experimental aircraft developed jointly by the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautic), the U.S. Army Air Forces and the U.S. Air Force as a science project and was built by Bell Aircraft. The aircraft was developed with the aim that a human breaks the sound barrier for the first time in level flight. Since at that time there was relatively little knowledge about flight behavior in the supersonic range, the shape of the aircraft fuselage was based on a machine gun bullet, because it was known to be stable in supersonic speeds. A swept wing was also dispensed, because little was known about its properties and flight behavior at the time.
Developed as a rocket aircraft, the Bell X-1 had to be brought to its take-off altitude under a B-29 Superfortess and dropped there, even if the aircraft was fundamentally developed and demonstrated its ground take-off capabilities in a test flight later.
The aircraft reached its development goal on October 14, 1947 and catapulted itself and the pilot Chuck Yeager through the sound barrier. The "Glamorous Glenn" (nicknamed after the wife of Chuck Yeager) reached a speed of Mach 1.06 and lands successfully after the flight.