X-Planes and Prototypes: From Nazi Secret Weapons to the Warplanes of the Future

'X' stands for the unknown in mathematics and physics. An 'X-Plane' is an experimental or research aircraft, designed to explore the unknown boundaries of aerodynamics, powerplant technologies or materiel science. The term 'X-Plane' has gone beyond its narrow US definition to become shorthand for a research aircraft or technology demonstrator of any origin. Beyond the California desert, the industries of many other countries, notable Britain, Germany, France, and the USSR, created some remarkable research aircraft and technically interesting prototypes, including vertical take-off aeroplanes and experimental aircraft. The US Air Force's Flight Test Center's motto is 'Towards The Unknown'. The golden age og rocket aircraft and heroic test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base from 1947 to 1975 was an exciting era that captured the public's imagination, and was celebrated in fiction, films, comics and models hanging from the ceilings of millions of bedrooms. This volume concerns itself only with manned vehicles. Pilotless rotorcraft predated manned helicopters by a decade, however, and half of US X-series aircraft have been unmanned rockets, aerodynamic shapes, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). But while these have contributed greatly to aerospace research, they lack the elements of human risk and popular appeal of manned aircraft. X-planes are by no means exclusively military. In just ever a century, civilian engineers and test pilots have advanced aeronautics from the tentative hops of the Wright Flyer to beyond the atmosphere with the SpaceshipOne, and are certain to higher, faster and further.