The Army Air Force had
the Bell
X-1, the Navy had the Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, or
"Crimson Test Tube" as it was rather aptly nicknamed.
Like the X-1, three Skystreaks were built, the first one
making its maiden flight on May 15th, 1947. Unlike the
rocket-engined X-1 however, the D-558-1 was powered by
a General Electric J35 turbojet rated at 5,000 pounds
of thrust.
WW2 Marine Corps ace Marion Carl set a new world speed
record of 650.6 mph in this aircraft on August 25th, 1947.
This was beaten less than two months later when good ol'
Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the X-1. Skystreak
#2 crashed on May 3, 1948 when a compressor fan disintegrated
shortly after takeoff, severing fuel and control lines.
Pilot Howard Lilly was killed instantly in the crash.
The other two D-558-1s survive; #1 in the National Museum
of Naval Aviation, and #3 in the Carolina Aviation Museum.
Meikraft's D-558-1 is damn near impossible to find these
days but well worth seeking out if the subject appeals,
though it has since been superseded by Special Hobby's
kit (also getting rather hard to find). Meikraft's effort
is quite accurate in most respects, with the exception
of the main gear bays which are a bit too far apart and
the rather crudely moulded landing gear. Neither issue
really detracts from the finished model, especially if
you're not in the habit of looking underneath. The intake
and exhaust will need some attention with sandpaper wrapped
around a suitable round object (an X-Acto knife handle
is ideal, but do take the blade out first!) to ensure
they are perfectly round. I managed to completely destroy
the vac-formed bubble canopy (the later style canopy is
also supplied but I wanted to finish this in its roll-out
configuration) so I modified half of one of the optional
tip tanks to plunge mould a replacement.
According to the excellent Ginter book (Naval Fighters
# 56), 12 Squared planned to re-release this kit
with appropriate corrections. To the best of my knowledge,
that never happened, and 12 Squared has since followed
Meikraft into oblivion.
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