X-Planes Photo Scrapbook

Flight Journal, Apr 2005 by DeGroat, Robert S

X-Planes Photo Scrapbook by Dennis R. Jenkins. Specialty Press; 204 pages; illustrated; $24.95.

Exploring the recurring themes of aviation boundaries has been a spectator sport for decades. Some of the aircraft were used to test the limits, and the pilots who flew them became familiar even to the most casual observers, who generally recognize names such as Neil Armstrong and Chuck Yeager and planes such as the X-1 and X-15.

Certain test aircraft are of more historic interest than others; several were just uninteresting; and a few were downright ugly; but whether they were designed for highspeed flight, vertical flight, or lifting bodies or were piloted or unpiloted, they all served a purpose. Author Dennis R. Jenkins has assembled the wonderful "X-Planes Photo Scrapbook"-a fascinating look at all things experimental that had anything to do with flight and flying: X-1 to X-50, the unusual LLRV and even some peculiar lifting bodies. It seems as though experimental aircraft were limited only by human imagination.

Each chapter covers a specific area of aeronautical research and provides enough historical background for a general overview, but it is the pictures that make this book so interesting. Jenkins accumulated a tremendous collection of images from government and company archives as well as public and private collections.

The result is a pictorial review of American scientific efforts to better understand aviation and its limitations. Many of the images have never been published before. Historians and enthusiasts will find it highly informative and a thoroughly entertaining journey through flight-test history.

-Robert S. DeGroat