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146 the X-l in which Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947). In July 1947 it was very secret. Today it hangs in the Milestones of Flight hall of the National Air and Space Museum in Washing- ton, D.C. Nothing about it remains secret: not its shape, nor its power, nor its construction, nor its performance. In 1947, airplanes being tested at Muroc Army Air Field in southern California included the Northrop XB-35 flying wing heavy bomber, Convair XB-36 super-heavy bomber, North American XF-86 Sabre jet fighter, and Douglas D-558-I Sky- streak research jet. None of these was ever involved in a mys- terious crash, nor was one flown as far afield as New Mexico. If what crashed in New Mexico in 1947 had been some secret American craft being tested, it would have been revealed as such many years ago and the mystery would have been solved to everyone's satisfaction. But what was so strange about the finding at the sheep ranch was not its radical configuration (it was just: scrap which suggested no particular shape) but its composition. The materials were limited to those having very unusual weight, strength, and markings. Had such materials been available to American aircraft and missile manufacturers in the late 1940s and afterward, they would have replaced the relatively inferior aluminum alloys, titanium, special steels, and finally the advanced composites such as carbon fiber. Using materials of lesser quality when superior materials are available makes absolutely no sense. Not even under condi- tions of excessive security. This explanation has even more holes in it than the American secret weapon explanation. In addition to all the reasons listed immediately above can be added the now-obvious inability of 1947 Soviet technology to have produced anything half so ad- vanced as what crashed in New Mexico. At the time, there was serious concern that the Soviets might have leaped far ahead using captured Nazi German technology and scientists. But CRASH AT CORONA SECRET SOVIET WEAPON