Dual Power

The Navy owned up last week to having an airplane, the Douglas D558-II Skyrocket, that has flown faster than sound "many times." Like the Air Force's pioneering XI, the Navy's Skyrocket is a rocket plane. But the X-I is intended to be dropped at high altitude from a B29, while the Skyrocket takes off under its own power. Inside its slim body is a powerful turbojet engine as well as the rocket motor. The turbojet is used first (with rocket assist at takeoff), to get the plane to high altitude. Then the rocket motor pushes it to supersonic speed.

Last week at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif., the Navy staged a press demonstration of the Skyrocket which was a face-reddening flop. The plane never got off the ground. But many earlier tests have been successful. The Skyrocket's top speed, not announced, is probably around 1,000 m.p.h.

Three Skyrockets have been built. One has cracked up; the remaining two have been used as flying laboratories in the hands of two redoubtable old men of the air: the Navy's Captain William Virginius Davis, 47, and Douglas' test pilot, Gene May, who is 45 and a grandfather.

With its swept-back wings and dual power plant, the Skyrocket is closer than the X-I to being a practical supersonic airplane. Flying on its turbojet alone, it has a respectable endurance: about half an hour. In combat, the rocket motor could give it brief bursts of superspeed.

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