Plane Facts: Rocket Planes

The Martin Marietta X-24 was a NASA experimental rocket-powered lifting body design that paved the way for the space shuttle.

When you look back at the history of aviation, some aircraft types stand out as evolutionary dead ends, ideas that made sense at the time but got abandoned sometime thereafter, usually very soon thereafter. This was sometimes because of better solutions to the problem they seemed to overcome, like commercial gyroplanes, eclipsed by helicopters, or vertical takeoff jets, a nearly extinct segment today.

Rocket planes are the poster child for this kind of obsolescence, as very high- powered turbojet, turbofan and ram jet engines have taken their place in the world, and the experimentation that they once allowed is more easily and cheaply done with other kinds of machines.

Historically, rocket planes have had one huge advantage: They produce ungodly amounts of power for their size.

The downsides of rocket engines, on the other hand, are numerous. The fuel is explosive and presents risk at every stage of the way, from refining it to flying with it. The term "fuel efficiency" is meaningless when talking rocket engines. They make even old-world turbojet engines look like they're sipping from a dainty straw. And because rocket fuel is so quickly exhausted, rocket planes need to glide in for a landing, which necessitates very long runways if their wings are designed to support high-Mach flight.

So while rocket planes are no longer a thing, at least for now, and their history is one not so much of achievement but of hope and promise, they were front and center for a couple of the greatest achievements in the history of flight.

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First rocket plane: Lippisch Ente
Designer: Alexander Lippisch
First flight: June 11, 1928
Rocket Power: Two black powder rockets installed for serial operation
Power: Approximately 80 pounds of thrust total
Endurance: One minute combined
Range: 0.93 miles
Configuration: Canard (tailless, forward wing)
Number built: 1
Number of flights: 2
Meaning of ente in German: Duck
Fate of the Ente: Destroyed in fire on second flight; roast duck (the pilot was unhurt)
Number of rocket-powered aircraft models historically: Fewer than 50

Most prolific true rocket plane: Messerschmitt 163 Komet
Designer: Lippisch
Number built: Around 370
Power: More than 3,300 pounds of thrust
Weight fully loaded: Nearly 10,000 pounds
Empty weight: 4,200 pounds
Endurance: 7.5 minutes
Never exceed speed: 560 mph
Mission: Attacking B-17s over Germany late in war
Number of B-17s shot down: As many as 18
Number of Me 163s lost: 10
Propellant: T-Stoff (oxidizer) and C-Stoff (propellant)
Downsides: Extremely explosive; numerous on-field and fueling accidents

Imperial Japan's rocket plane: Kamikaze Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka
Meaning of "Ohka:" Cherry Blossom
Construction of said Cherry Blossom: A human-piloted bomb to be used to attack American warships
Means of "takeoff:" Dropped from mother ship
Top speed: High subsonic in a dive
Number built: More than 700
Number of U.S. ships sunk or damaged: 7
Total types of rocket planes used in battle: 2, Me 163, Yokosuka MXY7

The Bell X-1A, one of a series of rocket planes that were the first to break the so-called sound barrier by exceeding Mach 1 in level flight.

Most famous rocket plane: Bell X-1A
Claim to fame: First plane to fly supersonic in level flight
Pilot: Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager

Most accomplished rocket plane ever: North American X-15
Number built: 3
Primary engine: Reaction Motors XLR11, 57,000 pounds of thrust
Propellant: Ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen
X-15 Claim to fame 1: Fastest plane ever in level flight, 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7)
X-15 Claim to fame 2: Only fixed-wing, self -powered plane to ever fly to space, 13 times by eight different pilots
Highest altitude achieved: 67 miles (around 354,000 feet, or Flight Level 3540!)

Contemporary Rocket plane: Rocket Racer
First flight: 2010
Prototype: Rutan Long-EZ, dubbed EX-Rocket
Subsequent models: Modified Velocity SE
Number built: 3
Concept: Head-to-head racing in Rocket Racing League
Fate of League: Defunct, 2014; no races were run

Other uses of rocket power for planes: Supplemental power, jet-assisted takeoff and landing (JATO)
Plane that uses JATO bottles: Lockheed Martin C-130
Most famous example: Blue Angels Fat Albert support plane