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| View Original: | B-29 mothership with pilots - Payne, Butchart, Walker, Littleton, and Moise DVIDS701557.jpg (1207x1536) | |||
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| Keywords: B-29 mothership with pilots - Payne, Butchart, Walker, Littleton, and Moise DVIDS701557.jpg en This photo shows the B-29 in the background with Dick Payne Stan Butchart and Joe Walker standing in front of it Charles Littleton and John Moise squatting The Boeing B-29 was the first U S aircraft to be modified to serve as an airborne launch vehicle Last operated by the NASA High-Speed Flight Station now the Dryden Flight Research Center Edwards California the B-29 aircraft was used to launch the X-1 series aircraft including the X-1-1 the X-1-2 later redesignated the X-1E the X-1A and the X-1B The B-29 which was accepted by the Air Force on Aug 2 1945 was operated by the NACA NASA the U S Air Force and the Bell Aircraft Company The Air Force transferred the B-29 to Bell Aircraft Company where it was modified to act as a carrier or mothership for the first X-1 After modification the aircraft flew to Pinecastle Army Air Base Florida where it made aeronautical history on Jan 25 1946 with its air launch of the first X-1 It then performed 10 drops of the X-1 at Pinecastle before flying to Edwards Air Force Base California in September 1946 where it dropped the X-1 for its first powered flight on Dec 9 1946 On Oct 14 1947 the B-29 again participated in a major aeronautical advance when it air launched the X-1 aircraft which proceeded to exceed the speed of sound Mach 1 for the first time Air Force Pilot Captain Charles Chuck Yeager was at the controls of the X-1 that day A mid-air explosion in the captive X-1A almost ended the career of the B-29 on Aug 8 1955 But pilot Stanley P Butchart dropped the X-1A to its destruction in the desert after X-1A pilot Joseph A Walker had scrambled back into the B-29 The B-29's 14-year career ended on July 1 1959 when it was flown from the NASA High-Speed Flight Station to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base Arizona for retirement The aircraft was made obsolete as a mothership by the advent of the X-15 Program which required a larger faster launch vehicle the B-52 In the meantime from 1950 to 1956 the NACA had used a P2B-1S a Navy version of the B-29 to launch the rocket-powered versions of the D-558-2 research aircraft NASA Identifier NIX-E-2666 <br>Unit NASA 2009-09-23 Glenn Research Center https //www dvidshub net/image/701557/b-29-mothership-with-pilots-payne-butchart-walker-littleton-and-moise 701557 2012-10-10 14 55 WASHINGTON DC US PD-USGov Edwards Air Force Base Images from DoD uploaded by Fæ Joseph Albert Walker Stanley P Butchart | ||||
