FORGOTTEN X-PLANE

While experimental aircraft such as the Bell X-1 and North American X-15 are familiar to most aviation history enthusiasts, some other X-planes remain unheralded or even obscure. Among these lesser-known aircraft is the X-14, which was designed as a testbed to study vectored thrust and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). Only one was ever built, and after years of use it fell into disrepair. Today that X-14 is being given a new lease on life.

Designed and built by Bell Aircraft between 1955 and 1957, the X-14 was originally known