User:Trevor MacInnis/sandbox/List of American X-planes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a list of American X-planes, a series of experimental United States aircraft (and some rockets) used for testing of new technologies and usually kept highly secret during development.

The first of these, the Bell X-1, became well-known as the first plane to break the sound barrier, which it did in 1947. Later X-planes yielded important research results, but only the North American X-15 rocket plane of the early 1960s achieved comparable fame. X-planes 7 through 12 were actually missiles, and some other vehicles were unpiloted. Most X-planes are not expected to ever go into full-scale production, and usually only a few are produced. One exception is the Lockheed Martin X-35, which competed against the Boeing X-32 to become the Joint Strike Fighter.

As of 2006, new X-plane projects are still underway.

Key
Manned aircraft	Unmanned Rocket	Unmanned aerial vehicle	Something else?

Name	Manufacturer	Image	Maiden Flight	Note
X-1	Bell Aircraft		January 19, 1946	157/First aircraft to break the sound barrier
X-1A	Bell Aircraft		February 14, 1953	List of X-1A flights
X-2	Bell Aircraft		June 27, 1952	List of X-2 flights
X-3	Douglas Aircraft Company		June 27, 1952	List of X-3 flights
X-4	Northrop Corporation		December 15, 1948	replace horizontal tail with elevons, examine flight characteristics
X-5	Bell Aircraft		June 20, 1951	Swept wing design
X-6	Convair		1955	Study Nuclear aircraft
X-7	Lockheed Corporation		April 1951	test ramjet engines/missile guidance technology
X-8	Aerojet
X-9	Bell Aircraft		April 1949	testbed for the nuclear-armed GAM-63 Rascal
X-10	North American Aviation		October 13, 1953	demonstrator for advanced missile technologies
X-11	Convair		June 11, 1957	testbed for the Atlas missile program
X-12	Convair		July, 1958	advanced testbed for the Atlas rocket program
X-13	Ryan Aeronautical Company		December 10, 1955	demonstrate the ability of a pure jet to vertically takeoff, hover, transition to horizontal forward flight, and vertically land
X-14	Bell Aircraft		February 19, 1957	demonstrate horizontal, vertical takeoff, hover, transition to forward flight, and vertical landing.
X-15	North American Aviation		June 8, 1959	research hypersonic flight (Mach 5+)
X-16	Bell Aircraft		Never flown	high altitude reconnaissance
X-17	Lockheed Corporation		April 1956	effects of high mach reentry
X-18	Hiller Aircraft		November 24, 1959	tiltwing and STOVL
X-19	Curtiss-Wright		Never flew	VTOL transport
X-20	Boeing		Never flew	reusable spaceplane for military missions
X-21	Northrop Corporation		April 18, 1963	test wings with laminar flow control
X-22	Bell Aircraft		March 17, 1966	tactical application of vertical take-off troop transporters
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X-50	Boeing		24 November 2003	demonstrate the principle that a helicopter's rotor can be stopped in flight and act as a fixed wing
X-51	Pratt & Whitney and Boeing		(Scheduled) 2009	test Scramjet engines
X-53	Boeing Phantom Works		November, 2002