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D-558-2 Skyrocket
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The Douglas D-558-2 "Skyrockets" were among the early transonic research airplanes like the X-1, X-4, X-5, and XF-92A. Three of the single-seat, swept-wing aircraft flew from 1948 to 1956 in a joint program involving the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), with its flight research done at the NACA's Muroc Flight Test Unit in Calif., redesignated in 1949 the High-Speed Flight Research Station (HSFRS); the Navy-Marine Corps; and the Douglas Aircraft Co.
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Additional information
The NACA received the three D-558-II Skyrockets in 1951 for use in high-speed flight research. The vehicles were modified for air launch from a P2B (the Navy designation for the B-29). This approach greatly increased the D-558-IIs' performance, as they no longer had to make a ground takeoff, but could now use their entire fuel supply for the speed/altitude run. The D-558-II in this video is still in the original jet and rocket configuration. The air intakes and jet exhaust can be seen on the airplane's nose and fuselage underside, while the rocket engine is mounted in the end of the fuselage.
The HSFRS became the High-Speed Flight Station in 1954 and is now known as the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The Skyrocket made aviation history when it became the first airplane to fly twice the speed of sound.
On Nov. 20, 1953, shortly before the 50th anniversary of powered flight, Crossfield piloted the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket research aircraft to Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound, or more than 1,290 mph.
The '2' in the aircraft's designation referred to the fact that the Skyrocket was the phase-two version of what had originally been conceived as a three-phase program, with the phase-one aircraft having straight wings. The third phase, which never came to fruition, would have involved constructing a mock-up of a combat-type aircraft embodying the results from the testing of the phase one and two aircraft.
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