1/48 Bell X-1

by Colin Whitehouse

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60th Anniversary of Supersonic Flight - Oct 14 2007

 

In the late 1940's the sound barrier was viewed as the absolute limit of speed for any machine and there was a general belief that any aircraft exceeding Mach 1 would be destroyed by compressibility of the air over the wings.  There was plenty of evidence for this of course with Mustangs and Spitfires breaking up or pilots reporting severe vibration and turbulence as the sound barrier was approached.  A number of planes were built to break the sound barrier including the DH 108, which fell victim to the forces around the sound barrier (but did finally exceed it in a dive), and the M52 which might well have succeeded before the X-1 had it not been canceled by the British Government.

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Despite the many and various efforts it was the USAF, Bell and Chuck Yeager who together actually exceeded Mach 1 in 14th October 1947 with the Bell X-1.  I bought an excellent summary of the project to break the sound barrier from the USAF Museum last year and when I found the kit in K Witoons model Shop in Bangkok in March it went into the stash.  I decided that the anniversary was a good reason to do the build so I knocked it out in a week for the Real Space GB. The model is totally stock other than having the plastic probes replaced with brass. 

The last few pictures show the X1 with the DH 108 and the Miles M52 which make interesting comparisons.

Colin

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Photos and text © by Colin Whitehouse