"TOWARD THE UNEXPLORED" BELL X-2 ROCKET PLANE EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE X-PLANES 92184
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- Опубліковано 9 тра 2019
- McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. presents Toward the Unexplored, a short 1967 documentary film. The documentary shows viewers the deadly flight of the Bell X-2 rocket aircraft piloted by Milburn G. Apt in 1956. The film opens with footage of the X-2 flying attached to a B-50 Superfortress on 27 September 1956. The film shows viewers the flight test center at Edwards Air Force Base (03:05), shots of the X-2, and a wind tunnel building where airflow is recorded (04:42). Men work on a missile used to measure aerodynamic effect (06:17); instruments on the ground measure the data from the rocket, which takes off and then parachutes to the ground. Rockets loaded with research instruments sit on launch sites ready to take off and collect data (07:25). Various wing designs are tested on rocket sleds (08:12); one such sled races along a track. Footage shows viewers the Bell X-1 dropping from its mothership (09:09), as well as footage of the Bell X-1A, Douglas X-3, Northrup X-4, Bell X-5, and Bell X-2. Men prepare for a ground test of the X-2; it is anchored to concrete to prevent runaway. A fuel truck pumps fuel into the tanks of the aircraft. The X-2’s rocket engines are fired up (12:48) in the grounded exercise. Lt. Colonel Frank “Pete” Everest drives his car into Edwards AFB (13:40) prior to a test flight. The X-2 flies through the air (14:18) and Everest is shown in the cockpit. The X-2 lands in the desert. Men run to meet Everest after the landing and help him out of the cockpit. Captain Iven Kincheloe prepares to fly the X-2 (15:22). He climbs into the plane that is partially in the bay of a B-50. Footage shows him flying the X-2 at high altitudes previously not reached. Captain Milburn G. Apt prepares to fly the X-2 on its thirteenth flight; he sits in the ship’s cockpit. Apt climbs into the B-50’s bubble nose for takeoff. The B-50 takes off. Footage shows the B-50 flying with the X-2 attached below. A chase plane is in position next to the two planes. The crew of the B-50 prepare to release the X-2. The pilot releases the X-2, which fires up its engines and flies off with mountains in the background. Apt pilots the X-2 as he climbs to 70,000 feet and breaks the speed of sound. Men on the ground record the flight and its data, watching as Apt hits Mach 3. The film then shows the cockpit and Aft as he turns the ship to return to base (23:28), just before he loses control of the X-2. Helicopters and trucks head to the crash site of the X-2 (24:04). The film ends with footage of new test planes designed to continue advancing aircraft technology.
The Bell X-2 (nicknamed "Starbuster") was an X-plane research aircraft built to investigate flight characteristics in the Mach 2-3 range. The X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft developed jointly in 1945 by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the United States Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to explore aerodynamic problems of supersonic flight and to expand the speed and altitude regimes obtained with the earlier X-1 series of research aircraft.
I didn't recall this particular opening sequence of The Twentieth Century. Great to see it!
I wonder if the pilot was aware that he should have waited for the plane to decelerate to a safer
speed before trying to make his turn back to to base? Thank you Captain Milburn Apt for your sacrifice.
And prior to that turn, he had flown the most perfect flight profile of the entire program. The great test pilot Pete Everest only managed to get the X-2 up to 2.87 Mach and that with tanks filled to overflowing with supercooled fuel and oxidizer. Yet Apt made it to 3.2 Mach, and then did the thing he had been repeatedly warned not to do - to initiate a turn in a highly unstable aircraft at speeds above Mach 2.5. Inertia coupling took hold and the poor man lost his life.
@@hckyplyr9285 Did they name an Air Force Base after him?
Typically they name a street on the base.
*'13'* is *still* a lucky number ... if you believe in "luck". Ask Jim, Jack and Fred.
the beginnings of the supersonic era
Nice work
Narrated by Walter “and that’s the way it is” Cronkite...
It always amazed me that we are watching advanced aircraft for the time, but not in color video...
Hardcore
Pretty grim subject for an educational film. The script refers to Mel Apt's death right at the start. I'm guessing they didn't show this to elementary school kids.
The ejection system on the X2 was pretty "Mickey Mouse." The nose and cabin separated from the plane then when the nose got to an altitude appropriate for it, a buzzer would sound, telling the pilot to trigger the parachute. The separation could be violent, and of course the buzzer depended on the pilot being conscious... you can see where this is headed. -.- In Apt's flight, the cabin had separated from the plane, but apparently he was not able to activate the chute.
Capsule separation gave the pilot a 20G jolt. I didn’t realize the human body could withstand that. Maybe Apt was rendered unconscious
"Starcrusher"?
I always heard the Bell X-2 was called "Skyrocket"
The Douglas D558 was the Skyrocket
It killed two of its pilots. No surviving specimens of the type exist.
Totally unnecessary crash by the record seeking USAF.