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SCALE: 1/32 |
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INITIAL RELEASE: 1988 |
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MEDIUM: Polystyrene |
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RARITY: (2) |
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Bell X-1 Breaking the Sound Barrier |
ABOUT THE DESIGN |
ABOUT THE KIT |
Developed by Bell Aircraft under contract with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and the U.S. Army Air Force, the X-1 was the world's first supersonic aircraft. Designed along the lines of a .50-caliber bullet with wings perpendicular to its fuselage (It would be several more years before American designers would perfect the art of creating drag-reducing swept-back wings), the X-1 had as its power plant a Reaction Motors 6,000-pound-thrust rocket engine. Launched from the belly of a specially modified B-29 Superfortress bomber, the first X-1-- nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis" -- and piloted by Capt. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, passed Mach 1 on October 14, 1947. |
With Chuck Yeager finally getting his due thanks to Tom Wolfe's 1979 best-seller The Right Stuff (followed by the 1983 movie directed by Philip Kaufman), Revell decided to get on the "Chuck"-wagon by releasing several aircraft kits in the late '80s under the banner "Yeager Super Fighters." Of course, the X-1 was an experimental aircraft, not a fighter, but damn the semantics; the Yeager connection was just too good to resist. The Bell X-1 was re-released by Revell in 2003. This kit was built from an original 1988 issue. |
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Bell X-1 Original Box Art |
Bell X-1 Re-Release Box Art |
X-Planes & Prototypes |
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