The story of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in a Bell X-1 is well known to aviation enthusiasts and the general public alike. But much of the history of transonic and supersonic flight testing remains relatively obscure. The X-1 spawned a series of successors, the X-1A through X-1E, which made important research contributions. Bell’s competitor, the Douglas Aircraft Company, received tremendous media attention when its D-558-2 became the first aircraft to surpass Mach 2, with Scott Crossfield at the controls. Meanwhile, Bell went on to develop the X-2 with an eye toward breaching Mach 3. The X-2’s story is one of triumph and tragedy,
deeply intertwined.
The X-2 program, tasked with building a sweptwing successor to the straight-winged X-1, began in 1945, before the X-1’s first flights. The X-2’s 40-degree swept wing was based in part on research conducted by the Germans toward the end of World War II, which had been reviewed by American aeronautical experts.
