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North American X-10

1953 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History

North America built 13 experimental X-10 aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF). The product is designed to test various capabilities of unmanned flight in the context of the upcoming SM-64 Navajo family of nuclear cruise missiles.

The first flight took place on October 14, 1953, and the series recorded speeds in excess of Mach 2.0 at nearly 50,000 feet. However, of the 13 completed planes, only one has survived - this one is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

The X-10 was given an aerodynamically refined basic shape, mimicking a rocket with a very slender fuselage, a pointed cone arrangement, and a twin-fin tail. Power comes from two Westinghouse XJ40-WE-1 turbojets, each producing 10,900 pounds of thrust, drawn in through semi-circular air intakes on the sides of the fuselage. Structurally, the aircraft is 77 feet long, with a wingspan of 28.1 feet and a height of 14.4 feet. The curb weight is 25,800 pounds and the MTOW is 42,300 pounds. The X-10 has a full retractable landing gear configuration.

The canards are attached to the nose and are fully mobile surface aircraft, while the general form of the wing main aircraft is the delta. The caudal fin is slightly curved outwards.

Early forms of computer-based processing systems provided the necessary flight corrections for inherently unstable designs.

Known to North Americans as "RTV-A-5", the X-10 was initially designed in 1951. The reusable aircraft was delivered to the US Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base in May 1953 and made its first flight in October of that year.

The X-10 quickly proved to be a sleek and fast aircraft, the fastest turbojet at the time, and at least five examples of the X-10 were used in tests at Edwards AFB (four lost at this stage). shelf). The program then moved to clear skies over Cape Canaveral, Florida, where six more cars joined the project (N-6 INS equipment is now in place). These managed to exceed planned limits, but again suffered an accident - the pair lost their way while trying to land.

The trio crashed deliberately during a diving test.

Beginning in 1958, the remaining X-10 units were used to test the tracking and attack capabilities of the Boeing CIM-10 "BOMARC" long-range supersonic surface-to-air missile (SAM). However, the effort was unsuccessful, as two were lost again in landing accidents and the third spent over the Atlantic Ocean when there were problems in flight.

During the flight, the X-10 reached a top speed of 1,300 mph with a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. It has a climb rate of 5,224 feet per minute.

Although the program suffered many casualties throughout its lifespan, the data collected proved helpful in the design of future unmanned and manned concepts - especially fighter jet designs, today's digitally controlled fly-by-wire (FBW) Systems used in inherently unstable designs are commonplace.