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This NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station photograph of the X-5 was taken at Edwards Air Force Base in the mid 1950s. The photograph shows the aircraft in flight with the wings swept back, 1957.

The Bell, X-5 was flight tested at the NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station (now the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California) from 1952 to 1955. The X-5 was the first aircraft capable of sweeping its wings in flight. It helped provide data about wing-sweep at angles of up to 60 degrees at subsonic and transonic speeds.