List of experimental aircraft

Information about List of experimental aircraft

This is a list of experimental aircraft. Most aircraft are marked as experimental when they are first designed, so this list will focus on notable vehicles that never went into production and experimental variations of vehicles that were produced.

For US designs this list will focus primarily on those aircraft that carried the "X" series designation or carried the "X" series designation as a prefix to a prototype, preproduction, or test aircraft.

US "X" designations

Purely-experimental designs

XA series

prototype or experimental attack aircraft

XB series

Prototype or experimental bomber aircraft

XC Series

XF Series

This series covers post-World War II fighter development when the newly independent USAF changed the "P" pursuit designation to "F" for fighter.

XP Series

This series covers fighter development up to the end of World War II. In 1947 the newly independent USAF changed the "P" pursuit designation to "F" for fighter.

US non X designations

United Kingdom

Includes research aircraft, private company projects and prototypes produced in competition for Air Ministry contracts.

Others

See also

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experimental aircraft is an aircraft that has not yet been fully proven in flight. Often, this implies that new aerospace technologies are being tested on the aircraft, though the label is more broad.
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Type rocket plane
Manufacturer Bell Aircraft Corporation
Maiden flight 19 January 1946
Status Retired
Primary users USAF
NACA

The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S.
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Type Research aircraft
Manufacturer Bell Aircraft Corporation
Designed by Robert J. Woods
Maiden flight 18 November 1955 (first powered flight)
Retired 27 September 1956
Primary users U.S.
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Type Experimental
Manufacturer Douglas
Maiden flight 15 October 1952
Retired 23 May 1956
Primary users United States Air Force
NACA
Number built 1
Variants F-104 Starfighter The Douglas X-3 Stiletto
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The Northrop X-4 Bantam was a small twin-jet airplane that had no horizontal tail surfaces, depending instead on combined elevator and aileron control surfaces (called elevons) for control in pitch and roll attitudes.
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Type Research aircraft
Manufacturer Bell Aircraft Corporation
Designed by Robert J. Woods
Maiden flight 20 June 1951
Retired December 1958
Primary users U.S.
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The Convair X-6 was a proposed experimental aircraft which never left the drawing board.

History

In May, 1946, the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project was started by the Air Force.
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The Lockheed X-7 (dubbed the "Flying Stove Pipe") was an unmanned test bed for ramjet engines and missile guidance technology. It was carried aloft by a B-29 or B-50 Superfortress carrier aircraft.
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Aerojet General X-8 was an unguided, spin-stabilized sounding rocket designed to launch a 150 pound (68 kg) payload to 200,000 feet (61 km). The X-8 was later spun-off into the prolific Aerobee rocket.
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The Bell Aircraft Corporation X-9 Shrike was a prototype ground-to-air, liquid-fueled guided missile that was a testbed for the nuclear-armed GAM-63 Rascal.

31 X-9 rockets were delivered, flying from April 1949 to January 1953.
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The North American X-10, much like the X-9 Shrike, was an unmanned technology demonstrator for advanced missile technologies.

Development

To facilitate development of the long-range Navaho surface-to-surface missile, North American Aviation developed the RTV-A-5
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The Convair X-11 (originally designated the Convair XSM-16A) was the first testbed for what became the Atlas missile program. Later the Convair X-12 became the second, more advanced testbed for the Atlas program.
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The Convair X-12 was the second, more advanced testbed for the Atlas rocket program. It was designed with 3 engines, its predecessor the Convair X-11 used only one engine. It was powered by a 1.5 stage liquid-fuel rocket. Its first flight was in July, 1958.
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Ryan X-13A-RY Vertijet, Ryan Model 69, was an experimental Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft flown in the United States in the 1950s. The main objective of the project was to demonstrate the ability of a pure jet to vertically takeoff, hover, transition to horizontal forward
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Type Experimental VTOL
Manufacturer Bell Aircraft
Maiden flight 19 February 1957
Retired 29 May 1981
Status Out of service
Primary users NASA
United States Air Force
Number built 1

The Bell X-14 (
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Type Rocket plane
Manufacturer North American Aviation
Maiden flight 8 June 1959
Introduced 17 September 1959
Retired December 1968
Status Museum piece
Primary users U.S.
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For sixteen-lane (x16) PCI Express slots, see .
The Bell X-16 was an aircraft designed as a high altitude reconnaissance jet aircraft in the United States in the 1950s.
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Function Atmospheric reentry testing
Manufacturer Lockheed
Entered service
General characteristics
Engine 1st stage:1x Thiokol XM20 Sergeant solid-fuel rocket, 48,000 lbf (213 kN)
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The X-18 was an experimental cargo transport aircraft designed to be the first testbed for tiltwing and STOVL (short take off and vertical landing) technology.

Development


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Type Experimental VTOL
Manufacturer Curtiss-Wright
Maiden flight November 1963
Status Cancelled
Number built 2 The Curtiss-Wright X-19 was an American experimental VTOL Tiltrotor aeroplane of the early 1960s.
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X-20 Dyna-Soar ("Dynamic Soarer") was a United States Air Force (USAF) program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites.
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Type experimental aircraft
Manufacturer Northrop
Maiden flight 18 April 1963
Introduced experimental
Retired 1968
Primary user National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Number built 2

The
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The Bell X-22 was a V/STOL X-plane with four tilting ducted fans. Take-off was to selectively occur either with the propellers tilted vertically upwards, or on a short runway with the nacelles tilted forward at approximately 45°.
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Type Lifting body
Manufacturer Martin Marietta
Maiden flight 21 December 1966
Retired 19 April 1967
Status Out of service
Primary user United States Air Force
Number built 3
Variants Martin X-24
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Type Lifting body
Manufacturer Martin Marietta
Maiden flight 17 April 1969
Retired 26 November 1975
Status Out of service
Primary user U.S.
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Type Recreational autogyro
Manufacturer Bensen or homebuilt
Designed by Igor Bensen
Maiden flight 1955

The Bensen B-8 is a small, single-seat autogyro developed in the United States in the 1950s.
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The X-26 is a sailplane and is the longest-lived of the X-plane programs.

Development

The X-26A was used by the U.S. Navy (USN) to train test pilots in the condition of yaw/roll coupling.
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Type Interceptor
Manufacturer Lockheed
Designed by Clarence Johnson
Status Cancelled at mock-up stage
Unit cost US$ Estimated 2.4 million

The Lockheed CL-1200 Lancer
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For information about other uses of Pereira, see Pereira (disambiguation).


The Pereira X-28 was a single-seat flying boat designed by Eut Tileston under contract to George Pereira, a private builder.
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Type Experimental Fighter
Manufacturer Grumman
Maiden flight 1984
Primary user DARPA
Number built 2

The Grumman X-29
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