Word: lox
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...Viking's inner works are much like the V-2's: it burns alcohol and "lox" (liquid oxygen) in a single combustion chamber. Chief improvement is in the control mechanism. When a big rocket first takes off, the air is not moving past its fins fast enough to provide steering control. The Germans got around this difficulty by putting small, movable graphite vanes in the blast of hot gas from the combustion chamber. By deflecting the gas stream slightly when the rocket wobbled, the vanes kept it upright until it was moving fast enough for the outside fins...
...Lox & Alcohol. The B-29 took off with Major Robert Cardenas, † one of the Air Force's best test pilots, at the bomber's controls. Followed by two F-80 "chase airplanes" (to observe the X-1 in flight), the B-29 circled to 7,000 ft. above the lake. Then Chuck, bundled in a flying suit and topped with a golden, hard-plastic crash helmet, climbed down a retractable ladder and squeezed through the door in the side...
...cockpit was barely big enough for him. Behind him, cramming most of the fuselage, were thick-walled tanks of "lox" (liquid oxygen) and alcohol. Tucked away in odd places, even under his feet, were heavy flasks of nitrogen gas compressed to 4,500 Ibs. a square inch. The windshield (of glass, rather than plastic, so it would not melt from air friction) was too small to give much visibility. From all sides, and above and below, a bristle of controls, dials and warning lights pressed on the pilot's seat...
...Piece. Silently and smoothly the X-1 cut away from the B29. For an instant it drove forward and downward. Then Chuck turned on the nitrogen pressure and fired the lox and alcohol in one of the rocket chambers. A spurt of white dots (visible shock waves) spurted out behind and grew into a long plumelike "contrail" (condensed water vapor...
...should be able to carry nearly twice as much lox and alcohol. This single improvement (there may be others) should push it into a much higher speed range. Numerous guessers around California airfields speculate that it ought to climb well above 100,000 ft. At this altitude the air is so thin that tremendous speed should be possible...