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That depends on how you look at it.I've looked up the bit about the X-1's stabilizer in 'Yeager' by Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos. In the chapter 'Against the wall', Yeager describes how in early October 1947, on his seventh (?) powered flight in the X-1, flying at M 0.94 at 40,000ft, the elevator became wholly ineffective. After landing, flight data analysis showed a shock wave forming at the elevator's hinge point at just that speed. Jack Ridley then proposed, and I quote:After thoroughly ground testing Ridley's idea, Albert Boyd agreed to trying it out in the air. Using the trim switch alone cured the control problem. The X-1 may have had a stabilizer and elevator setup, but its use as a de facto flying tail - something Bell's engineers had foreseen - enabled the X-1 to exceed M 0.94 in controlled flight.So: intended to be used as a stablizer-elevator setup - found wanting - then used as an all-flying tail.
That depends on how you look at it.
I've looked up the bit about the X-1's stabilizer in 'Yeager' by Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos. In the chapter 'Against the wall', Yeager describes how in early October 1947, on his seventh (?) powered flight in the X-1, flying at M 0.94 at 40,000ft, the elevator became wholly ineffective. After landing, flight data analysis showed a shock wave forming at the elevator's hinge point at just that speed. Jack Ridley then proposed, and I quote:
After thoroughly ground testing Ridley's idea, Albert Boyd agreed to trying it out in the air. Using the trim switch alone cured the control problem. The X-1 may have had a stabilizer and elevator setup, but its use as a de facto flying tail - something Bell's engineers had foreseen - enabled the X-1 to exceed M 0.94 in controlled flight.
So: intended to be used as a stablizer-elevator setup - found wanting - then used as an all-flying tail.
