Bureau number 37974, a white, swept-wing Douglas research plane designated NACA 144, became the first aircraft to fly faster than twice the speed of sound. NACA research pilot A. Scott Crossfield took the D-558-2 Skyrocket to Mach 2.005 on Nov. 20, 1953, in a shallow dive at 62,000 feet. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum holds that same airframe in its collection.
The record came from an airplane rebuilt for the job. The Skyrocket had begun life with a jet engine and a rocket, taking off from the ground, and only after Douglas converted it to all-rocket power and air launch was it able to reach Mach 2.
The museum’s collection record for the Douglas D-558-2, inventory number A19610108000, states: “Piloted by A. Scott Crossfield, on November 20, 1953, the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket became the first aircraft to fly faster than Mach 2, twice the speed of sound.” It adds that, air-launched from a U.S. Navy Boeing P2B-1S, a converted B-29, “the swept-wing, rocket-powered D-558-2 reached Mach 2.005 in a shallow dive at 18,898 meters (62,000 feet).” The record closes: “The historic Douglas D558-2 #2, NACA 144, the first Mach 2 airplane, is in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum.”
The Navy’s swept-wing research program
The Skyrocket was a Navy project from the start. The Navy issued a letter of intent to Douglas on June 22, 1945, for six Model D-558 aircraft with straight wings and turbojet power, according to the Smithsonian. Chief engineer Edward H. Heinemann directed development. Captured German swept-wing research, combined with studies by American scientist Robert T. Jones, led Douglas and the Navy to change the contract: three straight-wing D-558-1 Skystreaks and three swept-wing D-558-2 Skyrockets.
The Skyrockets were first powered by a Westinghouse J-34 turbojet for low-speed flight plus a Reaction Motors XLR-8 rocket engine for high-speed research, the museum says. That rocket produced 6,000 pounds of thrust, burning liquid oxygen and diluted ethyl alcohol. The first Skyrocket flew on Feb. 4, 1948, with Douglas test pilot John Martin at the controls, according to NASA’s history of the D-558-II, which says three of the aircraft flew from 1948 to 1956.
The work was not only about speed. NASA says the Skyrockets gathered “data about pitch-up and the coupling of lateral (yaw) and longitudinal (pitch) motions; wing and tail loads, lift, drag, and buffeting characteristics of swept-wing aircraft.” The Smithsonian says NACA 144, before its conversion, “revealed the tendency of sweptwing aircraft to pitch up under certain aerodynamic conditions.”
NACA 144 is rebuilt for Mach 2
Operating a heavily loaded rocket plane from the ground was a safety hazard, according to the museum, so Douglas modified the second and third Skyrockets to drop from the bomb bay of the P2B-1S. At the same time, it converted NACA 144 to all-rocket propulsion, using the space where the turbojet had been for more rocket fuel.
After that 1950 change, Douglas test pilot William B. Bridgeman flew the airplane to Mach 1.88 and an unofficial altitude record of 79,494 feet, the Smithsonian says. Marine test pilot Marion Carl extended the unofficial altitude mark to 83,235 feet on Aug. 21, 1953. Crossfield’s turn came three months later.
Crossfield had joined the NACA’s High Speed Flight Research Station at Edwards, California, as a research pilot in June 1950, according to his NASA biography. Over the next five years he flew aircraft from the X-1 to the YF-102 and both D-558 types. “During that time he logged 100 rocket flights, making him the single most experienced rocket pilot,” NASA says.
The Nov. 20, 1953, flight
NASA described the flight in a Nov. 25, 2013, article marking its 60th anniversary. The Navy’s P2B-1S typically released the Skyrocket at about 35,000 feet. “Following launch from the P2B-1S, Crossfield ignited the rocket motor and climbed to 72,000 feet altitude. He then nosed the Skyrocket over into a shallow dive and gradually accelerated, edging through Mach 2 at about 62,000 feet.”
The Smithsonian gives the peak as Mach 2.005, or 1,291 mph. Seconds afterward, the museum says, the XLR-8 exhausted its fuel and shut down, and Crossfield glided down to a dead-stick landing. NASA, citing historian Richard P. Hallion, says “Crossfield ended the 12-minute flight with a 360-degree roll followed by a smooth landing on Rogers Dry Lake.”
The record did not stand long. “Only 22 days later,” NASA says, Air Force Capt. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager flew the Bell X-1A to 1,612 mph. All three Skyrockets were retired from flight operations in 1956, according to the Smithsonian. A D-558-II was on display at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California, according to a NASA image feature dated Aug. 4, 2015, which does not identify the airframe. NACA 144, bureau number 37974, remains in the National Air and Space Museum’s collection, which lists it as either on loan or in storage.
Top image: The D-558-2 Skyrocket NACA 144 (Navy 37974), the airframe Scott Crossfield flew to Mach 2.005, on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base in 1955. Image Credit: NASA/Dryden Flight Research Center — Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.