At Frankfurt, Germany, Fritz von Opel travels just over a mile in the world’s first flight of a rocket-powered airplane. The Rak-1 tops 85 mph but crashes.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.