Original: 1947 & ndash ; Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft , the Glamorous Glennis , faster than the speed of sound - over the high desert of Southern California - and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight .
Simplified: 1947 - Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound , the first man to do so in level flight .