Skyrocket turns on heat | Aviation Week, June 6, 1949

 

First flight photo of the Douglas Skyrocket using its rocket motor. Two models of the transonic research plane have been turned over to National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the Navy for operation as part of the joint USAF-Navy- NACA transonic flight research program at Muroc AFB. Skyrocket has the same Reaction Motors rockets that powered the Bell X-1 on its first supersonic flight. Since Skyrocket must also carry fuel for its turbo-jet engine, rocket fuel is limited to a quantity sufficient for about half the endurance of the X-1's 150 seconds full rocket power.