Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 39: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ce 1953, the now famous X-1A reached down the intensity of the sun’s rays, | an impressive 1,650 miles an hour. and without special protection, the The Air Force selected Lt. Col. pilot could be seriously sunburned, so Frank K. Everest, of Fairmont, West the windshield also will resist infra- Virginia, a top test pilot, to fly red rays. the X-2. Everest has conducted As with the Bell X-1, the first air- much of the preliminary flight plane to exceed the speed of work on the new airplane. V4 sound, a B-50 bomber has Special provisions have | g been adapted to carry been made in the X-2 the new plane to the for the pilot’s altitude from safety. The which it be- cabin is gins its heavily flight. insulated This al- pressur- lows the ised and experi- detach- mental able. airplane Should he to start op- pilot have to leave the X-2 at high BS altitudes, explosive charges would separate the entire cabin from the rest of the airplane. A ribbon-type para- ¥ chute would carry the capsule to alow altitude where the pilot could then parachute to the ground. The windshield presented still another problem. An ordinary glass windshield would melt at tempera- tures the X-2 expected to encounter. Engineers have used highly-tempered glass capable of withstanding almost erations with a much greater fuel load, thereby permit- ting flights of longer dura- tion. Although there is no provision * for military armament, the X-2, like its sister ships the X-1 and X-1A, is packed with scientific 7 instruments to record data upon which the Air Force will base its de- signs for future combat airplanes. The X-2, a product of the combined efforts of Bell Aircraft Corporation, == the United States Air Force and the 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. At the @ ¢ National Advisory Committee on altitudes the X-2 is designed to reach ¥ Aeronautics, was built at Bell’s Buffalo there are no dust particles to cut plant. NEXT MONTH?’S ISSUE Includes Final part of Robert Presslie’s THE CREEP, ASTEROIDS by E. C. Tubb, THE OLD FIRM by H. K. Bulmer, plus the usual non-fiction features. AUTHENTIC—A MONTHLY MUST! 38 Comicbooks.com § i © ah