By Jay Miller
This article appeared in the Second Quarter 2001 issue of Code One Magazine.
The X-Planes, that unique family of mostly exotic research aircraft that first came into being with the advent of Bell Aircraft Corporation’s X-1 of 1945, have appeared only sporadically on aircraft manufacturers’ design boards. Today, well over half a century since the advent of the X-1, only forty-five X-designators have been assigned. From 1944
through 1970, the military services and various government agencies
funded almost thirty X-plane programs, or approximately one per year.
These programs explored everything from variable-swept-wing technology
to homebuilt amphibians for Southeast Asian police operations. From
1971 through 1983, the experimental aircraft programs rolled to a
halt