Word: skyrockets
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...Navy claimed a big record last week. Although the figures were secret, the carefully worded announcement said that at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, the Douglas Skyrocket (D558-2) had "attained the highest speed and altitude ever recorded by a piloted plane...
...little (4O-ft.) white Skyrocket had waited a long time for its day of glory. Built as a Navy experimental ship, it made its first take-off from Muroc's long, dry lake bed almost three years ago. Even then it could crack through the sonic barrier, but for a supersonic research ship, its performance was unspectacular. The stubby little rocket-powered Bell X-1 had already been dropped from the belly of a B29, and had carried its pilot close to twice the speed of sound (TIME, April 1, 1949). By comparison the newer Skyrocket dawdled...
Early Handicap. But the Skyrocket had started its career with a handicap. Unlike the X-1, it was designed to take off and climb with its own power. A turbojet engine was crammed into the narrow needle-nosed fuselage. There were rocket motors too, for speed runs, but they gulped fuel at a ton a minute from tanks cut down to accommodate the powerful turbojet and its accessories. Rocket thrust was never available to the pilot long enough for the plane to approach top speed...
Late in 1949 the Navy decided that its research plane had loafed long enough, and had collected all the data it could at the lower limits of supersonic flight. Then the Skyrocket went back to the shop. Its turbojet was removed, the air intakes (not needed for rocket propulsion) were covered over, and the 40-ft. fuselage was fitted with extra tanks that doubled its capacity for the volatile rocket fuels...
celebrates - in her own way - her own birthday. Her 2000th! From the cutting of her huge cake, with its hundred score of candles, 'til the last skyrocket blazes to heaven in late autumn, there's never been such a party. Why not plan to come in the "thrift season" (the spring or fall) ? There's something doing all the time! Paris is scintillating-for it's a very special time . . . Read the varied program of events here -and plan to come. Write us now for booklets...