File:D-558-2 Dropped from B-29 Mothership - GPN-2000-000251.jpg

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English: The D-558-2 #2 is launched from the P2B-1 in this 1956 NACA High-Speed Flight Station photograph.

The D-558 Phase Two aircraft was quite different from its Phase One predecessor, the Skystreak. German wartime aeronautical research records, reviewed in 1945 by Douglas Aircraft Company personnel, pointed to many advantages gained from incorporating sweptback wing design into future research aircraft. These findings along with wind tunnel studies performed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, resulted in the modification of the straight wing D-558-1 Skystreak contract to include investigation of sweptback wings.

Three redesigned aircraft were built by Douglas Aircraft Company under a contract from the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics and named D-558-2 Skyrocket. Originally all three were designed for ground take-off and used mixed power propulsion systems, consisting of a turbojet engine for take-off and a rocket engine, for greater speed in flight.

The early flight tests were made using only the turbojet engine with the rocket engines added, when available. As the flight program evolved, only one D-558-2 ended-up powered by a mixed rocket and turbo-jet propulsion system.

From the experience gained during the X-1 rocket program and from Skyrocket mixed propulsion flights, the Navy and the NACA proceeded to have all three of the D-558-2 aircraft modified for air launching from a Navy-operated P2B-1 Superfortress (Navy version of the Air Force B-29), later becoming NACA 137.

Although not designated an "X vehicle," the D-558-2 was essentially an X-vehicle aircraft in design and function, and contributed much to aeronautics research.
Date 1950s
date QS:P,+1950-00-00T00:00:00Z/8
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Author NACA
This image or video was catalogued by Armstrong Flight Research Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: E-2478.

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This image or video was catalogued by Great Images in NASA of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: GPN-2000-000251.

This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.

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Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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current01:05, 7 September 2015Thumbnail for version as of 01:05, 7 September 20155,100 × 4,000 (1.77 MB)Innotata (talk | contribs)Transferred from en.wikipedia
22:11, 8 April 2009Thumbnail for version as of 22:11, 8 April 20093,000 × 2,343 (3.3 MB)BotMultichillT (talk | contribs){{Information |Description={{en|1=The D-558-2 #2 is launched from the P2B-1 in this 1956 NACA High-Speed Flight Station photograph. The D-558 Phase Two aircraft was quite different from its Phase One predecessor, the Skystreak. German wartime aeronautic

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