The Bell X-14 (Bell Type 68) is an experimental

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...

aircraft flown in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 1950s. The main objective of the project was to demonstrate

vectored thrust Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the v ...

horizontal and vertical takeoff, hover, transition to forward flight, and vertical landing.

Design and development

Bell constructed the X-14 as an open-

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

, all-metal (

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

)

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

for the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

. It was powered by two

Armstrong Siddeley Viper The Armstrong Siddeley Viper is a British turbojet engine developed and produced by Armstrong Siddeley and then by its successor companies Bristol Siddeley and Rolls-Royce Limited. It entered service in 1953 and remained in use with the Roya ...

turbojet engine The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

s equipped with thrust deflectors sited at the aircraft's centre of gravity. The engines are fixed in position; transition from vertical to horizontal flight is achieved with a system of movable vanes that control the direction of engine thrust. Top speed was with a service ceiling of . The X-14 was designed using existing parts from two

Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviati ...

aircraft: wings, ailerons, and landing gear of a

Beech Bonanza The Beechcraft Bonanza is an American general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by Beechcraft, Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. The six-seater, single-engined aircraft is still being produced by Beechcraft and has been in con ...

and the tailcone and

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

of a

Beech T-34 Mentor The Beechcraft T-34 Mentor is an American propeller-driven, single-engined, military trainer aircraft derived from the Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. The earlier versions of the T-34, dating from around the late 1940s to the 1950s, were piston ...

Operational history

The X-14 first flew on 19 February 1957 as a vertical takeoff, hover, then vertical landing. The first transition from hover to horizontal flight occurred on 24 May 1958. In

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

, its Viper engines were replaced with

General Electric J85 The General Electric J85 is a small single-shaft turbojet engine. Military versions produce up to of thrust dry; afterburning variants can reach up to . The engine, depending upon additional equipment and specific model, weighs from . It is one ...

engines. That year the aircraft was delivered to the

NASA Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

as the X-14A. During the development of the P.1127, Hawker test pilots

Bill Bedford Alfred William Bedford OBE AFC FRAeS (18 November 1920 – 20 October 1996) was a British test pilot and pioneered the development of V/STOL aircraft. Bedford was born on 18 November 1920 at Loughborough and was educated at Loughborough Coll ...

and

Hugh Merewether Hugh Merewether (20 May 1924 in South Africa – 13 September 2006) was a British test pilot who pioneered the vertical and short take-off and landing (V/STOL) techniques that led to the development of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. Merewether wa ...

visited

NASA Ames The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

to fly the X-14 and acquaint themselves with jet V/STOL aircraft handling prior to the first flights of the prototype P.1127. It served as a test aircraft with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

until

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. The X-14 project provided a great deal of data on VTOL (Vertical TakeOff and Landing) type aircraft and flight control systems. In

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, the X-14A was fitted with new engines (General Electric J85-GE-19) and redesignated the X-14B. An onboard computer and digital

fly-by-wire Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control co ...

control system were also installed to enable emulation of landing characteristics of other VTOL aircraft. The X-14B was used in this test role until it was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident on 29 May 1981. At the time, there were plans to develop an X-14C with an enclosed cockpit. There were also plans for an X-14T trainer. None of these further versions got beyond the planning stage. During all of its years of service, the X-14 was flown by over 25 pilots with no serious incidents or injuries.

Aircraft serial numbers

Although there was only one airframe, it changed serial numbers with every major upgrade. *X-14 - ''USAF'' ''56-4022'' *X-14A - ''NASA 234'' (N234NA). *X-14B - ''NASA 704'' (N704NA).

Surviving aircraft

The X-14B was rescued from the scrap yard in 1991 and is undergoing renovation as part of the Ropkey Armor and Aviation Museum."Bell X-14B."
''Ropkey Armor Museum,'' 2012. Retrieved: 3 May 2012.

Design and development

Operational history

Aircraft serial numbers

Surviving aircraft

Specifications (X-14B)

See also

References

Further reading