Hmmmm, one of ther great 'what if's of the post war era. The M.52 was powered by a Whittle turbojet with an early form of reheat and there are many who believe that it would have exceeded the speed of sound in 1946. As for the X-1, Bell directly benefitted from research into the all moving tailplane that was to be fitted to the M.52; the British jet came before the American rocket. It was canned because Ben Lockspieser, a British politician decided that humans could not stand the forces at supersonic speeds, so the lot was dropped. From then on the M.52 became known as "Ben's Blunder".