Bell X-1

Kit:	Tamiya 1/72; model finished on 2024-08-25. This model is part of my Project Sound Barrier.
Aircraft:	46-062, "Glamorous Glennis", USAF & NACA, Muroc AFB, October 1947

The Bell X-1 (originally designated XS-1) is well-known as the first piloted aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. The first breaking of this so-called "sound barrier" took place on October 14th, 1947 over the Mojave Desert in California. The X-1 was flown by the (subsequently) famous test pilot Charles "Chuck" Yeager. The aircraft was named "Glamorous Glennis" after Yeager's wife.

The aerodynamics of transonic and supersonic flight were still poorly understood in the 1940s, and thus were the subject of intense research. There were man-made objects that had reached supersonic speeds before the Bell X-1, such as bullets (the X-1 incidentally was modeled after a 50-caliber bullet as this was known to be stable in supersonic speeds) and missiles (the German V-2 missile may have reached speeds as high as Mach 4 during later stages of flight). Conventional aircraft approaching transonic speeds (above Mach 0.8 or so) experienced adverse effects that caused many accidents. Even the Bell X-1 in earlier testing experienced transonic buffeting, a sort of oscillation caused by the shock waves forming in the airflow over the tail control surfaces. The effects of transonic phenomena typically prevented aircraft from acheiving speeds close to Mach 1, yet many claims about breaking the sound barrier were made before Yeager's record flight.

The X-1 and its later variants went on to serve for several years in attempts to reach ever higher speeds. Yeager reached the speed of Mach 2.44 in the X-1A in 1953.The original first X-1 survives in the National Air and Space Museum.

X-1 at Muroc in 1947 (NASM photo, CC0 license)

Construction Notes

Tamiya's kit (which dates back to 1989) is generally quite good despite difficulties in getting some parts to fit correctly; specifically, the fuselage halves did not seem to line up perfectly and required some "fettling". Just for good measure, I also used some parts from a photo-etch set from Brengun, although one can build a perfectly nice model even without them. The kit comes with two complete fuselages, one which is molded in transparent plastic so that you can show the internal components. I inserted some strong rare earth magnets just below the dorsal spine inside the fuselage, in anticipation of mounting the model on the EB-29 mothership.

The aircraft has three probes, at both wingtips and in the nose. I cut off the kit parts and drilled holes into which I inserted 0.5 mm steel rod. Not only is the rod closer to the actual diameter of the original probes, but it is also stronger. I superglued the airflow direction indicator from the Brengun photo-etch set on the tip of the right probe

I mixed my own version of "International Orange" (FS 595c number #12197) from Mr. Color "Orange Yellow" (#58) and "IJN Roundel Red" (#385). I made the color just a bit lighter than what FS 595c told me (probably about #12246), only because in this scale the exact color would have look unrealistically dark. I think the end result is a good impression of the original color.

The kit's decal sheet is very good, both in terms of accuracy as well as how easily the decals settle on the aircraft's surface. The only problem I had was that the US Air Force star-and-bar emblems, being very thin, you could see the aircraft's orange color through them. I fixed this by printing my own white decals to overlay the kit's decals. And of course, in terms of exact markings, I had the same dilemma as with my X-15, namely that the aircraft was being changed (including markings and stencils) over the course of its test-flying career, and thus it is hard to say whether this is how the aircraft looked during its first sound barrier -breaking flight.

I didn't do any weathering, except that rather than finishing the airframe completely glossy (like the restored museum piece), I used a mixture of Testors Dullcote and Glosscote. Period photographs, taken in the Mojave desert, do not give me the impression that the aircraft would have been all shiny.

Masked for painting the wheel wells.

Decals in place, but many details still missing.

The Tamiya kit comes with an alternate, transparent fuselage; I used it to test the right placement of the magnets.

Test-fitting the X-1 under the EB-29 and testing the magnetic connection.

References Used

The X-1 is a very well-known aircraft, but despite its fame, there are relatively few period pictures of Yeager's aircraft taken around the time of the 1947 record-breaking flight. Of course, since the aircraft is now preserved at the National Air and Space Museum, there is plenty of material post-restoration. These are the sources I used when building the model; a particularly good source is [3] which had several pictures I had not seen elsewhere.

Aerophile vol 1 no 1 Jan/Feb 1977
Air Enthusiast Five (November 1977 - February 1978)
Chuck Yeager and the Bell X-1: Breaking the Sound Barrier (Pisano et al); Smithsonian Institution 2006
Scale Modeler November 1988
The X-Planes - X-1 to X-45 (Miller); Midland Publishing 2001
X-Planes Photo Scrapbook (Jenkins); Specialty Press 2004
National Air and Space Museum's photo gallery of their Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis
X-1 photos from the NASA Dryden Historical Aircraft Photo Collection

The record-breaking Bell X-1 at the National Air and Space Museum (SMA photo).

To get a good feel of the aircraft, one should watch the 1983 movie The Right Stuff for which a very realistic replica of the X-1 was constructed.