1956: Piloted by Frank Everest, the X-2 completed its first supersonic flight. The X-2 was a rocket-powered, swept-wing research aircraft developed jointly in 1945 by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the United States Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to explore aerodynamic problems of supersonic flight. Note the twin set of “shock diamonds” formed in the supersonic rocket exhaust.
