The US Air Force, Navy and NACA (predecessor to NASA) all invested
in this extraordinary research craft that looked like it was going
supersonic while sitting on the ground, but barely achieved it in the air.
Many new construction techniques and materials were needed to build the
X-3 to withstand its anticipated flight regime, and large amounts of
expensive titanium were used. Unfortunately, engine choice was the
Westinghouse J34, one of several turbojets built by this company that failed
to perform as advertised.
Although the airframe was designed to reach Mach 2.2, the best it ever
achieved was Mach 1.21, in a dive. This meant it achieved little towards its
objective of studying kinetic heating research. The USAF only flew the X-3
six times before handing it to NACA, who made but 20 more flights before
it wound up in a museum.
Does anyone know what temperature the wings of this aircraft were recorded to have achieved? And additionally, what material they were constructed from?
When I was a kid I wrote Douglas for photographs of aircraft and this plane was one of them. For me, the X3 was the pinnacle of American engineering. Later, I chose to ignore that it turned out to be a dud, not by its own faults but because of the engines. Many decades later, I touched the X3 at the Dayton USAF museum and, for a few seconds, I was a kid again. Wow!
I read a book titled "The Lonely Sky" Its about a test pilot who flys for Douglas and gets it the Sky-streak program. The book ends with him signing up to test the X-3. I don't know if he does or not.
The X-3, like many other experimental aircraft, was a prototype. The resulting production aircraft was the F-104 built by Loockeed aircraft. Tt's design was based on data gained from the X-3 and it had a good track record. I worked for Douglas Aircraft from 1957 to 1959 in the new Missles and Spacecraft Division. Was there for the maiden flight of the DC-8 and when they rolled out the last DC-7, the end of one era and the begining of another.
In the 1950s everybody thought the aptly-named "Stiletto" was the most exiting-looking airplane around. It looked as though it just had to be the fastest airplane ever built. What the public weren't aware of until much later was that the engines intended to power this incredible-looking airplane were never built, and it had to make do with much lower-powered substitutes. Being grossly under-powered, it was alleged to have been a real dog to fly and, therefore, something of a failure. One can only wonder what the X-3 would have been like to fly if it had flown with the engines originally intended for it!
Actually, the J34 was OK but was not the intended engine. The X-3 did supply some pioneering information on inertial coupling, which had been discussed by Hewitt Phillips in the late 40s, but ignored until problems arose with planes like the X-3 and F-100A. (Also X-1A and X-2, I believe.)
The X-3 had one of the fastest takeoff speeds in history--260 mph. From a book, "Concept Aircraft, by Jim Winchester; Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, Ca. www.thunderbaybooks.com pp. 88-89.
i want to kno as much info on this plane as i can i am doing a project for my AFJROTC class at my high school. So could you help me by sending me more info to my e-mail adress
