In October, 1948, a second rocket powered model was launched. This was successful and achieved a speed of Mach 1.5.
One interesting titbit of information, purportedly from a member of the development team, was that at the end of the flight, it was planned that the aircraft would be given instructions that would send it into an 'impossible manoeuvre', a 15G turn, thus destroying the aircraft and letting the pieces fall back into the sea. However, what actually happened was that on the successful completion of the test, the 'self-destruct' command was transmitted, but, instead of the aircraft being destroyed by the manoeuvre, it was suddenly discovered that the airframe was so well designed that it survived what was thought to be impossible, and it was last observed on radar heading serenely out over the Atlantic Ocean.
Bookmarks