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    X-2

    X-2

    WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES

    11.19.2010

    Courtesy Photo

    NASA

    E-5749 This 1952 photograph shows the X-2 #2 aircraft mounted on a special transportation dolly at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The dolly was steerable and was used for transporting the X-2 around and for towing it off the lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base after a landing. This was the number 2 airplane (46-675), which was lost on May 12, 1953, on a captive flight over Lake Ontario when the airplane exploded during a liquid-oxygen topoff test, killing the pilot, Jean Ziegler, and EB-50A crewman Frank Wolko. Almost no debris was recovered from Lake Ontario, so no cause for the explosion could be determined. Later, however, investigations of similar explosions in the X-1 #3, X-1A, and X-1D traced the problem to Ulmer leather gaskets, which exuded tricresyl phosphate. This substance caused detonations in the supercold atmosphere of the airplanes' liquid oxygen tanks. As the X-2 #2 also had these gaskets, they were probably the cause of the explosion in that aircraft as well. 1952 NASA Photo / NASA photo X-2 Project Description

    NASA Identifier: 341188main_E-5749

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    IMAGE INFO

    Date Taken: 11.19.2010
    Date Posted: 02.08.2013 04:12
    Photo ID: 835152
    Resolution: 5100x4000
    Size: 2.59 MB
    Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., US

    Web Views: 81
    Downloads: 4

    PUBLIC DOMAIN