Jack Fellows (American, B. 1941) "1947 Bell X-1" Signed lower left. Original Oil painting on Masonite. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original which published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover of the Bell X-1 from the 100 Year of Powered Flight Collection. Bell engineers reasoned that bullets had been breaking the sound barrier for years, and so designed their XS-1 (later X-1) with a bullet-shaped body, thin straight wings and a 6,000-pound thrust Reaction Motors rocket unit. After some gliding flights, the great Bell test pilot Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin made the plane's first powered flight on December 9,1946. On October 14,1947, the XS-I dropped from the bomb bay of its B-29 mother-plane. Chuck Yeager was at the controls of the airplane which he had named "Glamorous Glennis" to honor his wife. He fired the chambers of his rocket engine, and at 43,000 feet reached the speed of Mach 1.06, breaking the sound barrier and trashing all of the old theories. Image Size: 16.5 x 14 in. Overall Size: 18 x 15.5 in. Unframed. (B17111)