Bell X-5 50-1838 USAF | Johnny Comstedt
The Bell X-5 was the first aircraft capable of changing the sweep of its wings in flight. Two X-5s were built; this is the first and is on display at the NMUSAF but the second was destroyed in a crash after an irrecoverable spin. The design has inherent violent stall/spin instability problems but the X-5 successfully demonstrated the advantage of a swing-wing for aircraft intended to fly at a wide range of speeds, paving the way for future aircraft.