List of X-planes - List of X-planes

List of X-planes

Name	Manufacturer Agency	Image	Maiden flight	Purpose and Notes
X-1	Bell Aircraft USAF, NACA		January 19, 1946	High-speed and high-altitude testing. First aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight. Proved aerodynamic viability of thin wing sections.
X-2 "Starbuster"	Bell Aircraft USAF		June 27, 1952	High-speed and high-altitude testing. First aircraft to exceed Mach 3.
X-3 Stiletto	Douglas Aircraft USAF, NACA		October 27, 1952	Titanium alloy construction; low aspect ratio wings. Planned to test long-duration high-speed flight. Incapable of reaching design speed, but provided insights into inertia coupling.
X-4 Bantam	Northrop USAF, NACA		December 15, 1948	Evaluated handling characteristics of tailless aircraft in the transonic speed region.
X-5	Bell Aircraft USAF, NACA		June 20, 1951	First aircraft to fly with variable geometry wings.
X-6	Convair USAF, AEC		Not flown	Modified Convair B-36 for study of Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion; not built. NB-36H testbed tested reactor.
X-7 "Flying Stove Pipe"	Lockheed Tri-service		April 1951	High-speed testbed for ramjet engines.
X-8 Aerobee	Aerojet NACA, USAF, USN			Upper air research vehicle and sounding rocket.
X-9 Shrike	Bell Aircraft USAF		April 1949	Guidance and propulsion technology testbed. Assisted development of GAM-63 Rascal missile.
X-10	North American Aviation USAF		October 13, 1953	Testbed for SM-64 Navajo missile.
X-11	Convair USAF		June 11, 1957	Testbed for SM-65 Atlas missile.
X-12	Convair USAF		July, 1958	Advanced testbed for SM-65 Atlas missile.
X-13 Vertijet	Ryan Aeronautical USAF, USN		December 10, 1955	Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) testbed. Evaluated tailsitting configuration for VTOL flight.
X-14	Bell Aircraft USAF, NASA		February 19, 1957	VTOL testbed. Examined the vectored thrust configuration for VTOL flight.
X-15	North American Aviation USAF, NASA		June 8, 1959	Hypersonic (Mach 6.7), high-altitude (350,000 feet (110,000 m)) testing. First manned hypersonic aircraft; capable of suborbital spaceflight.
X-16	Bell Aircraft USAF		Never flew	High-altitude reconnaissance aircraft project. "X-16" designation used as cover story.
X-17	Lockheed USAF, USN		April 1956	Tested the effects of high Mach number reentry.
X-18	Hiller Aircraft USAF, USN		November 24, 1959	VTOL/Short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) testbed. Evaluated the tiltwing concept for VTOL flight.
X-19	Curtiss-Wright Tri-service		November 1963	Tandem tiltrotor VTOL transport testbed. XC-143 designation proposed.
X-20 Dyna-Soar	Boeing USAF		Never built	Reusable spaceplane for military missions.
X-21	Northrop USAF		April 18, 1963	Boundary layer control testbed.
X-22	Bell Aircraft Tri-service		March 17, 1966	Quad ducted fan tiltrotor STOVL testbed.
X-23 PRIME	Martin Marietta USAF		December 21, 1966	Maneuvering atmospheric reentry effects testbed. Note: Designation never officially assigned.
X-24	Martin Marietta USAF, NASA		August 1, 1973	Low-speed lifting body handling testbed. Lifting body aerodynamic shape trials.
X-25	Benson USAF		December 6, 1955	Light autogyro for emergency use by downed pilots.
X-26 Frigate	Schweizer DARPA, US Army, USN		1967	Training glider for yaw-roll coupling Quiet observation aircraft testbed.
X-27	Lockheed		Never flew	High performance fighter prototype.
X-28 Sea Skimmer	Osprey Aircraft USN		August 12, 1970	Inexpensive aerial policing seaplane testbed.
X-29	Grumman DARPA, USAF, NASA		1984	Forward-swept wing testbed.
X-30 NASP	Rockwell NASA, DARPA, USAF		Never built	Single stage to orbit spaceplane prototype.
X-31	Rockwell DARPA, USAF, BdV		1990	Thrust vectoring supermaneuverability testbed. ESTOL testbed.
X-32	Boeing USAF, USN, RAF		September 2000	Joint Strike Fighter prototype.
X-33 Venture Star	Lockheed Martin NASA		Prototype never completed	Half-scale reusable launch vehicle prototype.
X-34	Orbital Sciences NASA		Never flew	Reusable unmanned spaceplane testbed.
X-35	Lockheed Martin USAF, USN, RAF		2000	Joint Strike Fighter prototype.
X-36	McDonnell Douglas/Boeing NASA		May 17, 1997	28% scale tailless fighter testbed.
X-37	Boeing USAF, NASA		April 7, 2006 (drop test) April 22, 2010 (orbital flight)	Reusable orbital spaceplane.
X-38	Scaled Composites NASA		1999	Lifting body Crew Return Vehicle demonstrator.
X-39	Unknown USAF	Classified	Unknown	Future Aircraft Technology Enhancements (FATE) program. Note: Designation never officially assigned.
X-40	Boeing USAF, NASA		August 11, 1998	80% scale Space Maneuver Vehicle testbed. X-37 prototype.
X-41	Unknown USAF	Classified	Unknown	Maneuvering re-entry vehicle.
X-42	Unknown USAF	Classified	Unknown	Expendable liquid propellant upper stage rocket.
X-43 Hyper-X	Microcraft NASA		June 2, 2001	Scramjet hypersonic testbed.
X-44 MANTA	Lockheed Martin USAF, NASA		Cancelled	F-22-based Multi-Axis No-Tail Aircraft thrust vectoring testbed.
X-45	Boeing DARPA, USAF		May 22, 2002	Unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator.
X-46	Boeing DARPA, USN		Cancelled	Naval UCAV demonstrator.
X-47A Pegasus X-47B	Northrop Grumman DARPA, USN		February 23, 2003	Naval UCAV demonstrator.
X-48	Boeing NASA		July 20, 2007	Blended Wing Body (BWB) testbed.
X-49 Speedhawk	Piasecki Aircraft US Army		July 29, 2007	Compound helicopter Vectored Thrust Ducted Propeller (VTDP) testbed.
X-50 Dragonfly	Boeing DARPA		24 November 2003	Canard Rotor/Wing testbed.
X-51 Waverider	Boeing USAF		26 May 2010	Hypersonic scramjet demonstrator.
X-52	Number skipped to avoid confusion with B-52.
X-53	Boeing Phantom Works NASA, USAF		November 2002	Active Aeroelastic Wing testbed.
X-54	Gulfstream Aerospace NASA		Future	Supersonic transport testbed.
X-55	Lockheed Martin Skunk Works USAF		June 2, 2009	Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA). Molded composite fuselage and empennage testbed.
X-56	Lockheed Martin Skunk Works USAF/NASA		2012	Active flutter suppression and gust load alleviation technology for potential use in future high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) reconnaissance aircraft.

Read more about this topic: List Of X-planes

Famous quotes containing the words list of and/or list:

“Modern tourist guides have helped raised tourist expectations. And they have provided the natives—from Kaiser Wilhelm down to the villagers of Chichacestenango—with a detailed and itemized list of what is expected of them and when. These are the up-to- date scripts for actors on the tourists’ stage.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)

“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)