A Bell Aircraft Corporation film document the Bell X1A flights, starting with Chuck Yeager's 12 December 1953 flight up to 74,700 feet and culminating with Arthur Murray's flight up to 90,440 feet in 28 May 1954.

Original faded color was correct as best as possible, along with film dust removal, conversion to the original 24 fps frame rate and geometry correction.

Image / sound cleanup, original frame rate conversion and color restoration by RetroSpace HD.

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The Bell X1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics–U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived during 1944 and designed and built in 1945, it achieved a speed of nearly 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 km/h; 870 kn) in 1948. A derivative of this same design, the Bell X1A, having greater fuel capacity and hence longer rocket burning time, exceeded 1,600 miles per hour (2,600 km/h; 1,400 kn) in 1954. The X1, piloted by Chuck Yeager, was the first manned airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight and was the first of the Xplanes, a series of American experimental rocket planes (and nonrocket planes) designed for testing new technologies.

Ordered by the Air Force on 2 April 1948, the X1A (serial number 481384) was intended to investigate aerodynamic phenomena at speeds greater than Mach 2 (681 m/s, 2,451 km/h) and altitudes greater than 90,000 ft (27 km), specifically emphasizing dynamic stability and air loads. Longer and heavier than the original X1, with a stepped canopy for better vision, the X1A was powered by the same Reaction Motors XLR11 rocket engine. The aircraft first flew, unpowered, on 14 February 1953 at Edwards AFB, with the first powered flight on 21 February. Both flights were piloted by Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler.

After NACA started its highspeed testing with the Douglas Skyrocket, culminating in Scott Crossfield achieving Mach 2.005 on 20 November 1953, the Air Force started a series of tests with the X1A, which the test pilot of the series, Chuck Yeager, named "Operation NACA Weep". These culminated on 12 December 1953, when Yeager achieved an altitude of 74,700 feet (22,800 m) and a new airspeed record of Mach 2.44 (equal to 1620 mph, 724.5 m/s, 2608 km/h at that altitude). Unlike Crossfield in the Skyrocket, Yeager achieved that in level flight. Soon afterwards, the aircraft spun out of control, due to the then not yet understood phenomenon of inertia coupling. The X1A dropped from maximum altitude to 25,000 feet (7,600 m), exposing the pilot to accelerations of as much as 8g, during which Yeager broke the canopy with his helmet before regaining control.

On 28 May 1954, Maj. Arthur W. Murray piloted the X1A to a new record of 90,440 feet (27,570 m).

The aircraft was transferred to NACA during September 1954, and subsequently modified. The X1A was lost on 8 August 1955, when, while being prepared for launch from the RB50 mothership, an explosion ruptured the plane's liquid oxygen tank. With the help of crewmembers on the RB50, test pilot Joseph A. Walker successfully extricated himself from the plane, which was then jettisoned. Exploding on impact with the desert floor, the X1A became the first of many early Xplanes that would be lost to explosions.

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