2-860-810 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

Key members of the XS 1 research team, USA, January 1948. National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics Muroc Flight Test Unit XS-1 Team members and USAF pilots (L-R): Joseph Vensel, Head of Operations; Gerald Truszynski, Head of Instrumentation; Captain Charles (Chuck) Yeager, USAF pilot; Walter Williams, Head of the Unit; Major Jack Ridley, USAF pilot; and De E. Beeler, Head of Engineers. They are looking at a photograph of the Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44), a rocket-powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, a joint NACA-U.S. Army Air Forces-U.S. Air Force supersonic research project, built by Bell Aircraft. NACA, a precursor to NASA, was created by Congress in 1915.