Something has always bugged me about this photo

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 10/10/2018 at 14:10 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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In this dramatic photograph , we see the third X-1 being mated to its B-50 Superfortress mothership. Before the jacks were installed , they used a pit dug in the runway and then (presumably) backed the mothership over top of the X-1, as shown in the next photo.

But then they installed these awesome hydraulic jacks to lift the mother ship up , and we can see in the photo how the system was used to mate the Bell X1-E to its B-29 carrier.

But none of this is what bugs me. What bugs me is a detail in the top photo. In the background is a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But what happened to the starboard wing? The engine cover is open, so I guess it’s possible to assume that the wing has been removed. And we can’t see the port side to see if that wing is there or not. It’s always been somewhat of a puzzle to me.

Enhance ..........

See? No wing. Therefore, I think the only reasonable explanation to all of this is that all of these pictures were altered , and that the entire X-1 program was a hoax.

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:16

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There’s a problem with your theory.  I don’t think Photoshop was advanced enough to do that alteration convincingly back then.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:17

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just like the moonlanding!

Future next gen S2000 owner > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:17

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Aliens.

deekster_caddy > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:17

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Could you assume that background plane with the missing wing was being assembled? I thought they could be transported that way.

ttyymmnn > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 14:17

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Wormholes, duh.

ttyymmnn > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 10/10/2018 at 14:18

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Exactly!!

ttyymmnn > Future next gen S2000 owner 10/10/2018 at 14:18

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Legal or illegal?

ttyymmnn > deekster_caddy 10/10/2018 at 14:19

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That makes too much sense. Besides, I figured they’d build them at the NA plant and then fly them wherever they needed to go. 

MarquetteLa > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 14:21

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You might be surprised as to what kind of darkroom tricks developers can employ to alter film photograph s. This one seem like a good candidate - thin, uniform wing to be removed and a simple, uncluttered background to blend in with.

facw > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 14:21

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Soviet technology was certainly up to the challenge:

Did we have a PHOTOSHOP GAP?!?

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:21

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The noise you hear right now is black helicopters circling your house.

Good luck - you’ll need it! 

Future next gen S2000 owner > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:22

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I don’t know if the US has laws regarding visitors from other planets, so that would make them legal.

I think the wing is washed out against the sky  and the pod is hidden by the jack. But maybe that’s what they want me to think.....

ttyymmnn > Future next gen S2000 owner 10/10/2018 at 14:29

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Wake up sheeple!

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 10/10/2018 at 14:30

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The black helicopters are real.

Chariotoflove > MarquetteLa 10/10/2018 at 14:32

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Oh, I know what can be done in a darkroom.  That wasn’t the joke. :)

Chariotoflove > facw 10/10/2018 at 14:34

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That’s because they had help from alien technology.  Pretty sure Stalin himself was an alien agent planted to keep our world powers divided.

ttyymmnn > facw 10/10/2018 at 14:36

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Trotsky who?

user314 > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 14:40

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I can’t find it now (of course), but the rather famous group shot of the A-12s lined up at the Palmdale plant was initially altered to remove the mountains in the background to obscure where they were being built. It’s only recently that an un-retouched version has been released.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:43

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Its shadow is still there. However, the perspective is as near as can’t be avoided to absolutely dead on the edge of the wing. I’m guessing that it appeared if it appeared at all as a very thin line, as very thin objects in front of a light source sometimes bloom away, and that either poor darkroom technique or good area brightening technique overzealously applied just burned away anything left .

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/10/2018 at 14:46

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I like my hoax theory better. I had not noticed the shadow, though. Obviously, sloppy work by the retouchers.

wafflesnfalafel > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 14:48

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I would think it’s entirely possible there was something else, maybe unrelated to the x-1 program, that they didn’t want shown and was “redacted” from the pic maybe?  (My money is on reverse engineered alien technology.)

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/10/2018 at 15:28

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I’ve been looking at the photo some more, as well as the other photos. The sun is very low in these photos, presumably because they were working in the very early morning to prepare for the day’s flight. Looking at the other long shadows cast in the first picture, it’s possible that the shadow being cast from the B-45 is not the missing wing, but rather the fuselage. Here is a link to the largest version of the photo I can find from NASA .

user314 > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 15:34

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But wouldn’t “they” be using one of the Stealth Hawks?

ttyymmnn > user314 10/10/2018 at 15:38

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This pic is a few years old. 

Just Jeepin' > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 10/10/2018 at 15:42

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Ugh. I watched part of one of Fox’s “documentaries” years ago pushing the narrative that it was a hoax. I could not believe how obvious the attempt was to make NASA look bad.

I learned a critical rule from that documentary: if you don’t know exactly what  question being asked, assume what otherwise would sound like a bullshit answer isn’t addressing the point you think it is.

Old Texan > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 15:46

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The plane is likely EB-45A 47-012.  It was an engine test bed aircraft, damaged at Edwards 5/17/1950, grounded due to structural failure and being stripped for parts.  Test pilot Wilbur Seller, who went on to fly the B-49, was the pilot.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 15:47

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You’re probably right. It would be more conclusive one way or another if it was possible to tell if the engine was missing rather than just the nacelle open.

If the engine is missing, the case for the wing not being present intensifies.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 15:51

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QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM

Ooh, you speak French!

(Yeah, it’s an old reference...)

ttyymmnn > Old Texan 10/10/2018 at 15:54

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Well, there you go. That seems as plausible as anything else I can come up with. Where did you find this information?

ttyymmnn > Old Texan 10/10/2018 at 15:58

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The date of the photo is 1951.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 10/10/2018 at 16:00

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Old Texan just replied with this:

The plane is likely EB-45A 47-012. It was an engine test bed aircraft, damaged at Edwards 5/17/1950, grounded due to structural failure and being stripped for parts. Test pilot Wilbur Seller, who went on to fly the B-49, was the pilot.

Certainly seems plausible. Sadly, more plausible than my conspiracy theory.

Chariotoflove > user314 10/10/2018 at 16:08

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Doing PR for top secret government stuff must cause all kinds of ulcers for whoever gets the job.

ttyymmnn > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 10/10/2018 at 16:12

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The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur .

EngineerWithTools > facw 10/10/2018 at 16:15

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Wax-on, yez-off.

Future next gen S2000 owner > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 16:26

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Plausibility never enters into a good conspiracy!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 10/10/2018 at 17:59

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I saw that one and use it regularly. Oh, for the good ol’ days. Can you imagine feeling nostalgic for Dubya ?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Old Texan 10/10/2018 at 17:59

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Fake news; nice try.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > user314 10/10/2018 at 18:00

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Is that what they crashed/blew up in OBL’s compound?

user314 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/10/2018 at 18:04

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An artist’s interpretation, y up.

Dragon has also released a 1/144th scale model of it.

There’s also the prop made up for   Zero Dark Thirty:

Old Texan > ttyymmnn 10/11/2018 at 09:01

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That X-1-3 and the B-50 were destroyed by fire 9/9/1951 , I think the day of that photo. It was a captive flight. As far as the B-45:

Accident report 05/17/1950 Seller, Wilbur W. Jr. B-45A 47-012 Edwards AFB

http://www.accident-report.com/Yearly/1950/5005.html

*Converted to EB-45A.
*1950: USAF 3077th EG.
*5/17/1950: Written off at Edwards AFB, CA.

http://www.forgottenjets.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/B-45.html

012 modified to EB-45A. With 3077th EG in 1950. Damaged May 17, 1950 at Edwards AFB, California due to structural failure

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1946.html

The dramatic story of the “Air Force Test Pilot,” featuring interviews with the pilots who fly experimental jet-planes, will be spotlighted during Mutual’s “The Air Force Hour” broadcast tonight (9:30 to 9:55). The experiences of these pilots will be aired when Air Force Radio Reporter Capt. Charles E. Yeager, the man who flew faster than sound, Majors Russ Schleesh and Joe Howell, jet B-47 pilots who broke the transcontinental speed record, Major Bob Cardenas and Capt. Wilbur Seller, pilots of the jet B-49 Flying Wing, and Capt. Bob Halliday, jet B-45 pilot.

http://www.angelfire.com/ky2/cumberlandgapbc/index3.html

(My comment below )

As far as I can see, there are too many wheels under the aircraft. The wing had a seam a foot or so beyond the engine towards the tip, and it looks like it was removed (you can see this seam in some of the aircraft photos). The engines were likely being salvaged, as the E indicated it was an engine test bed aircraft.

It was all on the internet, a few hours of looking around.

Old Texan > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/11/2018 at 09:03

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Just history.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Old Texan 10/11/2018 at 09:07

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I was being a troll. I appreciated your post.

ttyymmnn > Old Texan 10/11/2018 at 09:58

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Thanks. It actually never occurred to me to make such a search. NASA gives the date of the photo as November 1951.

Old Texan > ttyymmnn 10/11/2018 at 11:20

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I copied my notes wrong, I had down November 9, 1951.

After that flight, they were defueling the X-1-3 and it caught fire.

“The X-1-3 was delivered to Edwards in April 1951. Bell test pilot Joseph Cannon successfully made a glide flight in the aircraft on July 20. On Nov. 9, 1951, a captive flight was made by the X-1-3 aboard the B-50 launch aircraft. This was to be a rehearsal for the first powered flight, as well as a test of the jettisoning system. Engineers canceled the jettisoning tests, however, when nitrogen pressure fell. The B-50 with the fully fueled X-1-3 still attached landed back at Edwards safely, and preparations began to jettison the LOX. As Cannon pressurized the LOX tank, however, a dull thud was heard, followed by a hiss and a small cloud of white vapor escaped from the X-1-3's center section. Then, a violent explosion occurred, with yellow flames and black smoke engulfing both the X-1-3 and the B-50. Cannon escaped from the X-1-3, but spent nearly a year in the hospital recovering from severe burns on his legs, arms, and body. The fire and subsequent explosions destroyed both the X-1-3 and B-50.”

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/news/FactSheets/FS-085-DFRC.html

iheartburpees > ttyymmnn 10/11/2018 at 16:16

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If you look a bit closer, the shadow is being cast from the horizontal stabilizer.

ttyymmnn > iheartburpees 10/11/2018 at 16:26

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Look for the reply by Old Texan. He solved the riddle admirably.