Bell X-1: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Oct. 22, 2026

Facts

Also Known As	Glamorous Glennis • X-1 • Bell XS-1 • XS-1

Photos and Videos

View the launching of the Bell X-1 aircraft from the bomb bay of a B-29 bomber

Witness X1-E taking off under a B-29 from Edwards Air Force Base, California

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

airplane Boeing 767 Boeing 777 C-47 Boeing 707 Concorde DC-3 Tupolev Tu-144 X-15 Ilyushin Il-76 7 Puzzling Plane Disappearances

Key People

Bell, Lawrence

Lawrence Dale Bell

American aircraft designer

NASA's Reduced Gravity Program provides the unique weightless or zero-G environment of space flight for testing and training of human and hardware reactions. NASA used the turbojet KC-135A to run these parabolic flights from 1963 to 2004.

Man-Made Birds in the Sky