The Naval Air Rocket Test Station was organized into eight test areas along Snake Hill and Lake Denmark Roads and served as the Navy’s premier rocket-engine test facilities, used by both the Navy and Reaction Motors, Inc. Area D tested the Bell X-1 (XLR-11) rocket engine, in which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, and Area E tested the X-15 (XLR-99) rocket engine and was one of the largest static test stands on the east coast. The work there was associated with Reaction Motors founders Lovell Lawrence, Jr., Hugh Franklin Pierce, John Shesta, James Hart Wyld, and their employees.
