Yeager breaks sound barrier - Oct 14, 1947 - HISTORY.com Yeager breaks sound barrier Publisher A+E Networks U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground. After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight. For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California.

The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis,” was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet. Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager’s achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general. Related Videos Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier | World History Project Oct 14 1947 Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier Chuck Yeager's two cracked ribs hurt like hell, but he was darned if a little tumble from a horse in the Mojave Desert was going to stop him from breaking the sound barrier. The U.S.

Air Force was counting on him. It was his ninth flight in the experimental rocket plane XS-1, each one having edged closer to Mach 1, the never crossed barrier past which man would fly faster than the speed of sound. It was dangerous, he knew. A British test pilot had been blown to bits going Mach 0.94. The crew at Murdoc Air Base in California, not knowing the extent of Yeager's injuries, sent him off with a jolly "Hi-yo, Silver!" Climbing painfully down into the XS-1 as it lay in the airborne belly of the huge mother ship, a B-29, Yeager snapped the cover shut using a sawed-off broom. At 20,000 ft., he dropped out of the bomb bay with a jolt. With all four rockets firing, the plane started shaking violently. The Mach needle edged up past 0.965, and then it went off the scale. Yeager was thunderstruck. He was flying supersonic, and "it was as smooth as a baby's bottom: Grandma could be sitting up there sipping lemonade," he said later.

He half didn't believe it—until the tracking crew ran up and reported hearing the world's first sonic boom, a sound that marked the end of the Wright Brothers' era and the beginning of the age of the astronauts, taking humankind into outer space. His XS-1 had accelerated to Mach 1.06, or 700 m.p.h. That night Yeager fixed his buddies a pitcher of martinis to celebrate. But the world would have to wait to learn of Yeager's feat. It was all top secret until Aviation Week broke the story in December. The government wouldn't come around to confirming it had happened until May 1948. Source: Cathy Booth Thomas Added by: Kevin Rogers 1947: Capt. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager pilots the rocket-powered Bell X-1 to a speed of Mach 1.07, becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. In breaking the sound barrier, Yeager becomes the fastest man alive — and the legend of the X-Planes begins. As airplanes flew faster and faster throughout the 1930s, pilots began to experience a number of problems associated with the increased airspeed.

Aircraft such as the Lockheed P-38 and Republic P-47 flew just fine at ordinary speeds in level flight. But if pilots put them in a high-speed dive, they began to experience control problems that led to the deaths of several pilots. The main problem facing these pilots was the aerodynamic condition known as compressibility. Simply stated, at speeds well below the speed of sound, most of the air molecules have time to get out of the way of an aircraft as it approaches, and the density of the air does not change. However, as the speed of sound is approached, the air molecules can’t get out of the way, and more of them hit the aircraft. The impact compresses the air in front of the aircraft and increases the air density. Eventually shock waves form around the airplane, affecting the lift and drag. These changes were not well-understood and led to the loss of control in several aircraft. Because the effects of compressibility are directly related to the speed of sound, a ratio is used to describe the speed of an aircraft. The Mach number is the speed at which an object is traveling relative to the speed of sound at a particular temperature. The name is in honor of physicist Ernest Mach, who studied high-speed gas dynamics.

The Bell X-1 was developed to research aerodynamics in the transonic region, or speeds just below and just above the speed of sound. After numerous flights with civilian test pilots, Capt. Yeager of the newly formed U.S. Air Force made his first powered flight in the X-1 on Aug. 29, 1947, high over the Mojave Desert of southern California. Over the next several weeks, Yeager piloted the X-1, named ‘Glamorous Glennis’ after his wife, on several flights creeping closer and closer to the sound barrier. In his autobiography, Yeager, the legendary test pilot writes about one of the surprises discovered during the experimental test flights: “I was flying at 0.94 Mach at 40,000 feet, experiencing the usual buffeting, when I pulled back on the control wheel, and Christ, nothing happened!” Yeager had experienced one of the control problems associated with transonic flight. “The airplane continued flying with the same attitude and in the same direction.” The problem Yeager was experiencing was the ineffectiveness of the X-1’s pitch controls, as shock waves essentially created an aerodynamic shadow around the tail.

Changes were made to the horizontal tail controls, allowing Yeager to control the airplane’s ability to pitch up and down, and flights continued. This knowledge would lead to the all-flying tail, or stabilator, standard on all supersonic fighters today. Yeager was nursing two broken ribs on the morning of Oct. 14, after being thrown from his horse on a ride the night before. He boarded the B-29 bomber that was to carry the Bell X-1 to altitude. The plan was to fly to Mach 0.97. But Yeager says the new moving tail boosted his morale, and he wanted to fly faster. After climbing down into the X-1, which was carried like a bomb in the belly of the B-29, Yeager’s friend and fellow test pilot Jack Ridley handed him a short, sawed-off section of broomstick. Yeager would use it to close the canopy of the X-1, because his broken ribs prevented him from closing the latch normally. The X-1 was dropped, and the first two chambers of the rocket were ignited to carry the plane to 40,000 feet.

Still climbing, Yeager ignited the last two chambers, and as the speed passed Mach 0.96, he says the ride started to smooth out. After watching the needle on the Machmeter fluctuate a bit, it suddenly went off the end of the scale. (In a less-than-optimistic design, the instrument topped out at Mach 1.0.) People on the ground heard what sounded like distant thunder. It was the first sonic boom ever created by an aircraft. At age 24, Yeager had flown faster than the speed of sound. The flight was kept secret, and the world wouldn’t know about the first supersonic flight until months later. The X-1 would fly more than a hundred more times, reaching a speed of Mach 1.45. Subsequent X-1 models would fly more than twice the speed of sound. Later X-Planes would fly even faster, reaching hypersonic speeds where the density of the air wasn’t the only thing to change: They would fly so fast, the chemistry of the air would change. Capt. Yeager would go on to become Gen. Yeager and the iconic test pilot.

He was the first commandant of the Air Force’s test-pilot school and continued commanding fighter squadrons into the 1960s. Now age 86, Yeager will return this Saturday to the skies over the Mojave desert. He’ll make a now-routine supersonic flyby to kick off Edwards Air Force Base’s air show and open house. Source: Jason Paur Added by: Kevin Rogers Yeager remained in the Air Force after the war, becoming a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base) and eventually being selected to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight, after Bell Aircraft test pilot "Slick" Goodlin demanded $150,000 to break the sound "barrier." Such was the difficulty in this task that the answer to many of the inherent challenges were along the lines of "Yeager better have paid-up insurance." Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 m).

Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, he broke two ribs while riding a horse. He was so afraid of being removed from the mission that he went to a veterinarian in a nearby town for treatment and told only his wife, as well as friend and fellow project pilot Jack Ridley about it. On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not seal the airplane's hatch by himself. Ridley rigged up a device, using the end of a broom handle as an extra lever, to allow Yeager to seal the hatch of the airplane. Yeager's flight recorded Mach 1.07, however, he was quick to point out that the public paid attention to whole numbers and that the next milestone would be exceeding Mach 2. Yeager's X-1 is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Yeager was awarded the MacKay and Collier Trophies in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight, and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954.

Some aviation historians contend that American pilot George Welch broke the sound barrier before Yeager, once while diving an XP-86 Sabre on October 1, 1947, and again just 30 minutes before Yeager's X-1 flight. There was also a disputed claim by German pilot Hans Guido Mutke that he was the first person to break the sound barrier, on April 9, 1945, in a Messerschmitt Me 262. Chuck Yeager - IMDb IMDb Actor | Stunts | Miscellaneous Crew The first pilot to break the sound barrier, born in Myra, West Virginia. He trained as a fighter pilot, flying over 60 missions in Europe. On March 5, 1944, Yeager was shot down over France, fought with the Maquis, escaped over the Pyrenees carrying a wounded airman. On 14 October 1947, Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket research aircraft past Mach 1... See full bio » Born: Oct. 14, 1947: Yeager Machs the Sound Barrier | WIRED Oct.

14, 1947: Yeager Machs the Sound Barrier subscribe 6 months for $5 - plus a FREE Portable Phone Charger. On Twitter 6 hours 11 things we wanna steal from #CES2017 but won't because stealing isn't cool, okay? You just don't do it. It's wrong wrd.cm/2jl9IPu Author: Jason Paur. Jason Paur Date of Publication: 10.14.09. Time of Publication: 12:00 am. 12:00 am Oct. 14, 1947: Yeager Machs the Sound Barrier 1947: Capt. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager pilots the rocket-powered Bell X-1 to a speed of Mach 1.07, becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. In breaking the sound barrier, Yeager becomes the fastest man alive — and the legend of the X-Planes begins. Photo Gallery: Let the X-Planes Begin As airplanes flew faster and faster throughout the 1930s, pilots began to experience a number of problems associated with the increased airspeed.

Aircraft such as the Lockheed P-38 and Republic P-47 flew just fine at ordinary speeds in level flight. But if pilots put them in a high-speed dive, they began to experience control problems that led to the deaths of several pilots. The main problem facing these pilots was the aerodynamic condition known as compressibility. Simply stated, at speeds well below the speed of sound, most of the air molecules have time to get out of the way of an aircraft as it approaches, and the density of the air does not change. However, as the speed of sound is approached, the air molecules can’t get out of the way, and more of them hit the aircraft. The impact compresses the air in front of the aircraft and increases the air density. Eventually shock waves form around the airplane, affecting the lift and drag. These changes were not well-understood and led to the loss of control in several aircraft. Because the effects of compressibility are directly related to the speed of sound, a ratio is used to describe the speed of an aircraft. The Mach number is the speed at which an object is traveling relative to the speed of sound at a particular temperature. The name is in honor of physicist Ernest Mach, who studied high-speed gas dynamics.

The Bell X-1 was developed to research aerodynamics in the transonic region , or speeds just below and just above the speed of sound. After numerous flights with civilian test pilots, Capt. Yeager of the newly formed U.S. Air Force made his first powered flight in the X-1 on Aug. 29, 1947, high over the Mojave Desert of southern California. Over the next several weeks, Yeager piloted the X-1, named ‘Glamorous Glennis’ after his wife, on several flights creeping closer and closer to the sound barrier. In his autobiography, Yeager , the legendary test pilot writes about one of the surprises discovered during the experimental test flights: “I was flying at 0.94 Mach at 40,000 feet, experiencing the usual buffeting, when I pulled back on the control wheel, and Christ, nothing happened!” Yeager had experienced one of the control problems associated with transonic flight. “The airplane continued flying with the same attitude and in the same direction.” The problem Yeager was experiencing was the ineffectiveness of the X-1’s pitch controls, as shock waves essentially created an aerodynamic shadow around the tail.

Changes were made to the horizontal tail controls, allowing Yeager to control the airplane’s ability to pitch up and down, and flights continued. This knowledge would lead to the all-flying tail, or stabilator, standard on all supersonic fighters today. Yeager was nursing two broken ribs on the morning of Oct. 14, after being thrown from his horse on a ride the night before. He boarded the B-29 bomber that was to carry the Bell X-1 to altitude. The plan was to fly to Mach 0.97. But Yeager says the new moving tail boosted his morale, and he wanted to fly faster. After climbing down into the X-1, which was carried like a bomb in the belly of the B-29, Yeager’s friend and fellow test pilot Jack Ridley handed him a short, sawed-off section of broomstick. Yeager would use it to close the canopy of the X-1, because his broken ribs prevented him from closing the latch normally. The X-1 was dropped, and the first two chambers of the rocket were ignited to carry the plane to 40,000 feet.

Still climbing, Yeager ignited the last two chambers, and as the speed passed Mach 0.96, he says the ride started to smooth out. After watching the needle on the Machmeter fluctuate a bit, it suddenly went off the end of the scale. (In a less-than-optimistic design, the instrument topped out at Mach 1.0.) People on the ground heard what sounded like distant thunder. It was the first sonic boom ever created by an aircraft. At age 24, Yeager had flown faster than the speed of sound. The flight was kept secret, and the world wouldn’t know about the first supersonic flight until months later. The X-1 would fly more than a hundred more times, reaching a speed of Mach 1.45. Subsequent X-1 models would fly more than twice the speed of sound. Later X-Planes would fly even faster, reaching hypersonic speeds where the density of the air wasn’t the only thing to change: They would fly so fast, the chemistry of the air would change. Capt. Yeager would go on to become Gen. Yeager and the iconic test pilot.

He was the first commandant of the Air Force’s test-pilot school and continued commanding fighter squadrons into the 1960s. Now age 86, Yeager will return this Saturday to the skies over the Mojave desert. He’ll make a now-routine supersonic flyby to kick off Edwards Air Force Base’s air show and open house. Sources: The X-Planes, X-1 to X-45, by Jay Miller; Yeager, by Gen. Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos Chuck Yeager retraces history in the sky, breaking the sound barrier -- again - CNN.com Chuck Yeager retraces history in the sky, breaking the sound barrier -- again By the CNN Wire Staff Updated 11:54 AM ET, Mon October 15, 2012 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

JUST WATCHED Chuck Yeager re-enacts milestone 02:37 Story highlights Chuck Yeager was the first test pilot to break the sound barrier In 1947, he flew past Mach 1 after being dropped from a B-29 bomber at 45,000 feet Yeager said he "laid down a pretty good sonic boom" over Edwards Air Force Base Chuck Yeager retraced history on Sunday, 65 years to the minute, as the first test pilot to break the sound barrier, taking to the skies once again to fly faster than the speed of sound. The 89-year-old Yeager broke the sound barrier in a U.S. Air Force F-15 at 10:24 a.m. over the Mojave Desert, the same location where he first flew past Mach 1 on October 14, 1947, the military said in a statement. Yeager, flying in the F-15 with an Air Force captain, told CNN late Sunday that he hit Mach 1.3 and "laid down a pretty good sonic boom over Edwards" Air Force Base.

Yeager's reenactment of his historic flight came the same day that Austrian Felix Baumgartner became the first person to break the sound barrier as a skydiver, jumping from a balloon at the edge of space to make the 23-mile journey. While Yeager's sound-breaking flight was news in military and aircraft manufacturing circles, his popularity soared when Tom Wolfe detailed Yeager's flight in the book "The Right Stuff" and its subsequent film adaptation. "I really appreciated the Air Force giving me a brand new F-15 to fly," Yeager told CNN. Today, fighter jets can easily break the sound barrier. In fact, Yeager's flight Sunday did it at an altitude of about 33,000 feet, according to a statement provided by the Air Force. But in 1947, the golden age of flight, Yeager was dropped in an experimental rocket-propelled Bell X1 jet from a B-29 bomber at an altitude of 45,000 feet. "That's the only way we could do it," he said. "It took the British, French and the Soviet Union another five years to find out that trick.

It gave us a quantum jump" in aviation advancement, he said. On Sunday, Yeager took off from Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas in the second seat, the one behind the pilot, though he said he was flying the F-15 when it broke the sound barrier over Edwards. "We had to keep it below Mach 1.4. If you want to go Mach 2, you start breaking glasses and cracking roofs," he said. But Yeager hardly sounded disappointed. His final aerial move, he told CNN, was a fly-by, buzzing the tower, at Nellis. Chuck Yeager - Breaking the Sound Barrier, the guy with the Right Stuff Major Chuck Yeager, formal portrait, late 1940s Chuck Yeager with Bell X-1A Bell X-1 Bell X-1A, first supersonic aircraft Douglas X-3, experimental aircraft First man to break the sound barrier, flying Bell X-1 By Stephen Sherman , Oct. 1999. Updated June 30, 2011. Muroc Field After WW2, Chuck Yeager was assigned to be a test pilot at Muroc Field in California.

Muroc was high up in the California desert, a barren place except for sagebrush and Joshua Trees. The main attraction of Muroc was Rogers Dry Lake, a flat expanse that was covered with a couple inches of water in the winter, and dried out hard and flat in the spring. A natural landing field, with miles of good surface in every direction. In 1946, the whole place was off-limits, a top secret Army base, developing jet and rocket planes. And there was almost nothing there - two simple hangars, some fuel pumps, one concrete runway, and a few shacks. In many ways, Muroc was fighter pilot Heaven in the late '40s: the run-down, Quonset-hut facilities didn't attract many visits from the Army Air Force top brass, and there wasn't much to do there but fly, and drink and drive fast cars. Pancho Barnes' "Fly Inn" was the pilots' favorite watering hole.

Breaking the Sound Barrier One of the great unknowns of the time was the so-called "sound barrier." Planes like the British Meteor jets that approached the speed of sound (760MPH at sea level, 660 MPH at 40,000 feet) had encountered severe buffeting of the controls. At that time, no one knew for sure whether an airplane could exceed "Mach 1," the speed of sound. A British pilot, Geoffrey de Havilland, had died trying. The U.S. Army was determined to find out first. The Army had developed a small, bullet-shaped aircraft, the Bell X-1, to challenge the sound barrier. A civilian pilot, Slick Goodlin, had taken the Bell X-1 to .7 Mach, when Yeager started to fly it. He pushed the small plane up to .8, .85, and then to .9 Mach. The date of Oct. 14, 1947 was set for the attempt to do Mach 1. Only a slight problem developed.

Two nights before, after an evening at Pancho's, Chuck and Glennis went out horseback riding, Chuck was thrown, and broke two ribs on his right side. He couldn't have reported this to the Army doctors; they might have given the flight to someone else. So Yeager taped up his ribs and did his best to keep up appearances. On the day of the flight, it became apparent that, with his injured right side, he wouldn't be able to shut the door of the Bell X-1. In the plane's tiny cockpit; he could only use his (useless) right hand. He confessed his problem to Ridley, the flight engineer. In a stroke of genius, Ridley sawed off a short piece of broomstick handle; using it with his left hand, Yeager was able to get enough leverage to slam the door shut. And that day, Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. Tom Wolfe described the conclusion of the exhilarating flight in his splendid book, The Right Stuff : The X-1 had gone through "the sonic wall" without so much as a bump.

As the speed topped out at Mach 1.05, Yeager had the sensation of shooting straight through the top of the sky. The sky turned a deep purple and all at once the stars and the moon came out - the sun shone at the same time. ... He was simply looking out into space. ... He was master of the sky. His was a king's solitude, unique and inviolate, above the dome of the world. It would take him seven minutes to glide back down and land at Muroc. He spent the time doing victory rolls and wing-over-wing aerobatics while Roger Lake and the High Sierras spun around below. Click here to read a review of The Right Stuff at Amazon.com. After the flight, the Army clamped tight security on the whole thing, and Yeager couldn't tell anyone. He celebrated with just a few other pilots at Pancho's. He flew a dozen more transonic flights in the X-1, but still under tight wraps. His accomplishment wasn't announced to the public until mid-1948.

The Bell X-1 is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum After the establishment of the Air Force as a separate branch of the military, Muroc became Edwards Air Force Base. Flight Test in the 1950's - The X-Planes Because of his consummate piloting skill, his coolness under pressure and ability to detect a problem, quickly analyze it and take appropriate action, Yeager was selected to probe some of the most challenging unknowns of flight in aircraft such as the X-1A, X-3, X-4, X-5 and XF-92A. Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket The records of the X-1 were soon exceeded by the swept-wing Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. First flown in February, 1948. Pilots such as Pete Everest, Bill Bridgeman, and Marion Carl pushed the envelope with it, achieving speeds of Mach 1.45 and 1.88. Carl took it as high as 83,000 feet.

But its ultimate performance came in November, 1953, when Scott Crossfield reached Mach 2 in a shallow dive at 62,000 feet. X-1A Crossfield's distinction as "the fastest man alive" was short-lived. Less than a month later, Yeager piloted the rocket-powered X-1A to a record 1,650 mph (Mach 2.44) on Dec. 12, 1953. During this flight, he became the first pilot to encounter inertia coupling. The aircraft literally tumbled about all three axes as it plummeted for more than 40,000 feet before he was able to recover it to level flight. Even his rival, Scott Crossfield, has since conceded that it was "probably fortunate" that Yeager was the pilot on that flight "so we had the airplane to fly another day." Later in 1953, Kit Murray flew the X-1A up to a new record height, 90,440 feet.

Only one model of the Bell X-1A existed; it was destroyed in July, 1955 X-2 As flight researchers designed aircraft that could fly at Mach 3, they encountered more problems: severe heating, instability, and worse inertial coupling. The swept-wing Bell X-2, with a 15,000 pound thrust, dual chambered rocket engine, constructed of stainless steel, was the next in the series to meet these challenges. Pete Everest made the first powered flight in the X-2 in November, 1955 and later flew it to a new speed record of Mach 2.87. In 1956 pilots Mel Apt and Iven Kincheloe (a Korean War ace) were assigned to the X-2 project. "Kinch" set a new altitude record of 126,000 feet on Sept. 7. Three weeks later Mel Apt became the first man to reach Mach 3; he encountered the same inertial coupling and tumbling as Yeager had in the X-1A, but couldn't pull out of it. Both he and the aircraft were lost.

X-3 The Douglas X-3 looked like the hottest and faster airplane ever. It still does. But looks are deceiving. Westinghouse proposed J46 turbojet engines grew too large for the X-3. To get the plane airborne, a pair of J34's were installed, but could never power the plane as intended for sustained supersonic flight test. The X-3 could only exceed Mach 1 in a steep dive. Yeager flew the X-3. X-15 Of course, the ultimate X-plane was the X-15, a true space plane, which pilots like Bob White, Joe Engle, and Neil Armstrong took to extraordinary new records in the 1960's. Joe Walker took the X-15 to a speed of Mach 5 in 1963. Read an article about the X-15 . By latter-day standards, it is remarkable that, while engaged in a wide range of such highly experimental flight research programs, Yeager was also involved in the evaluation of virtually all of the aircraft that were then being considered for the Air Force's operational inventory.

Indeed, he averaged more than 100 flying hours per month from 1947-1954 and, at one point, actually flew 27 different types and models of aircraft within the span of a single month. In 1953, Yeager tested the Russian MiG-15, serial #2057, that a North Korean pilot had defected with. (Click on the link to read about Lt. Kum Sok No's dramatic defection on September 21, 1953.) Command Through the 1950's and 60's, Yeager continued his successful career as a United States Air Force officer and test pilot. In October 1954, he was assigned to command the 417th Fighter Squadron, first in Germany and then in France. Returning to the United States in September 1957, he served as commander of the 1st Fighter Squadron at George Air Force Base, Calif. While he did not enter the astronaut program with John Glenn and the other Mercury Seven, he was appointed director of the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) at Edwards Air Force Base.

One of the planes he tested in 1963 was the NF-104, an F-104 with a rocket over the tailpipe, an airplane which theoretically could climb to over 120,000 feet. Yeager made the first three flights of the NF-104. On the fourth, he planned to exceed the magic 100,000 foot level. He cut in the rocket boosters at 60,000 feet and it roared upwards. He gets up to 104,000 feet before trouble set in. The NF-104's nose wouldn't go down. It went into a flat spin and tumbled down uncontrollably. At 21,000 feet, Yeager desperately popped the tail parachute rig, which briefly righted the attitude of the plane. But the nose promptly rose back up and the NF-104 began spinning again. It was hopeless. At 7,000 feet Yeager ejected. He got tangled up with his seat and leftover rocket fuel, which burnt him horribly.

He hit the ground in great pain and his face blackened and burned, but standing upright with his chute rolled up and his helmet in his arm when the rescue helicopter arrived. This scene was dramatically presented toward the end of the movie, The Right Stuff , and some have conflated this scene with Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the X-1. He went to Vietnam as commander of the 405th Fighter Wing in 1966 and flew 127 combat missions, and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General. In February 1968, he took command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and in February 1968, led its deployment to Korea during the Pueblo crisis. In July 1969, he became vice commander of the 17th Air Force, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and then, in January 1971, he was assigned as U.S. defense representative to Pakistan. On June 1, 1973, he commenced his final active duty assignment as director of the AF Safety and Inspection Center at Norton Air Force Base, Calif.

After a 34-year military career, he retired on March 1, 1975. At the time of his retirement, he had flown more than 10,000 hours in more than 330 different types and models of aircraft. In 1986, Yeager was appointed to the Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger accident. Back to Yeager Page 1 Sources and Links Edwards AFB - well-designed, easy to navigate site, good use of Flash on main page, lots of history on test pilots, airplanes, and Edwards/Muroc © 1999- Chuck Yeager: First Person to Break the Sound Barrier Chuck Yeager: First Person to Break the Sound Barrier By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | June 11, 2014 04:28am ET MORE Chuck Yeager continued to act as a flight consultant for the air force until his last flight on October 14, 1997. Credit: Air Force Test Center History Office Chuck Yeager was an American test pilot who was the first person to break the sound barrier — the point where a speeding object (such as an airplane) passes the speed of sound.

Yeager made his history-setting flight on Oct. 14, 1947 in an airplane he dubbed Glamorous Glennis, after his wife. The Bell X-1 rocket plane (which today hangs in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum) passed Mach 1 following a drop from a B-29 airplane. The monumental "top secret" event was kept classified until 1948, but once it hit the public airwaves, Yeager became a celebrity. He also received a prestigious aviation award called the Collier Trophy, which called his flight the greatest achievement in aviation since the Wright brothers first took flight in 1903. War fighting and escape Yeager had a colorful aviation career long even before breaking the Mach barrier. Born in 1923 in a small town near Hamlin, West Virginia, Yeager grew up working on his father's pickup trucks, according to Yeager's website. His high school graduation in 1941 took place just six months before the United States entered World War II that December. By that point, Yeager was a young member of the Army Air Corps. He was tapped for flight training in July 1942, and quickly distinguished himself among his peers.

"He had remarkable 20/10 eyesight, tremendous physical coordination, and an uncanny ability to stay focused in stressful situations. Those traits coupled with a competitive streak and his understanding of machinery caught the attention of his instructors," his website stated. Yeager received his pilot wings in 1943 and served in WWII, flying 64 combat missions for 270 hours in Europe. He was shot down on March 5, 1944, over Bordeaux, France, but with the assistance of French resistance movement the Maquis, Yeager made it back to neutral territory a few weeks later. USAF Capt. Charles E. Yeager (shown standing with the Bell X-1 supersonic rocket plane) became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound in level flight on Oct. 14, 1947. Credit: United States Air Force Archive Breaking the barrier Following the war, one of Yeager's assignments as an assistant maintenance officer in the fighter section at the Flight Test Division in Wright Field, Ohio. Yeager's website describes the location as "the center of Army Air Forces R and D [research and development]", and said his main assignment was to fly the fighters being developed there.

His flight skills got him some attention: he was asked to fly in air shows and also took part in service trials at Edwards Air Force Base (then called Muroc Army Air Field). Then in 1947, the young Yeager was picked to try to break the sound barrier . Yeager's work on Glamorous Glennis began with three glide flights, then powered flights starting Aug. 29. He had trouble keeping the plane straight due to pitch problems, particularly on a flight Oct. 10 where he briefly lost pitch control completely. Another crew member suggested that Yeager should move the X-1's horizontal tail very slightly to keep his airplane under control. On his next flight, Oct. 14, Yeager tried out the tail idea at 0.83, 0.88 and 0.92 Mach and found the method worked. "At 42,000 feet, [Yeager] relit a third chamber of his engine," his website stated.

"The X-1 Glamorous Glennis rapidly accelerated to 0.98 Mach and then, at 43,000 feet, the needle on his Machmeter jumped off the scale." The speed of sound, Mach 1, is about 758 mph (1,220 kph) at sea level, and decreases with altitude.) After the test Yeager continued his flight testing duties for many years after breaking the sound barrier, including testing Lockheed’s XF-104, an aircraft that was capable of going double the speed of sound. But Yeager had a couple of near misses as he tested the aircraft, which was always a risky endeavor as he was among the first to fly these types. In December 1953, Yeager turned off his Bell X-1A engine as planned at 76,000 feet. The aircraft began to roll and yaw, then quickly fell out of control despite Yeager's attempts to correct the issue. Yeager managed to pull out safely at 25,000 feet — after falling more than 50,000 feet.

Ten years later, Yeager piloted a Lockheed NF-104 aircraft that crashed, but he managed to parachute out safely. "The veteran Air Force pilot suffered burns on his face and neck, apparently from the ignition of pure oxygen in his mask, but otherwise was not injured seriously," the L.A. Times reported at the time . The crash was depicted in both the book and movie versions of "The Right Stuff." (Yeager played a small part in the movie, as the bartender at Pancho Barnes’ Happy Bottom Riding Club.) Yeager's last active duty flight was on Feb. 25, 1975, in an F-4C Phantom II, but he remained an active consulting test pilot for decades after that. In 2012, the then 89-year-old Yeager flew in the back seat of the F-15D to re-enact the 65th anniversary of his record-setting flight.

Editor's Recommendations Chuck Yeager - Biography - IMDb Chuck Yeager Jump to: Overview (2) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (2) | Trivia (6) Overview (2) Charles Elwood Yeager Mini Bio (1) The first pilot to break the sound barrier, born in Myra, West Virginia. He trained as a fighter pilot, flying over 60 missions in Europe. On March 5, 1944, Yeager was shot down over France, fought with the Maquis, escaped over the Pyrenees carrying a wounded airman. On 14 October 1947, Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket research aircraft past Mach 1, "thus breaking the sound barrier". This was the first step into space. In 1953, in the Bell X-1A, he flew at more then 2.5 times the speed of the sound. He later commanded the USAF. AeroSpace Research Pilot School, and the 4th Tac Fighter Bomber Wing.

The subject of the book and film "The Right Stuff", General Yeager did all the flying in the movie The Right Stuff as well as played the bartender. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Lester A Dinerstein <lester1@earthkink.net> Spouse (2) Mach Buster | General Chuck Yeager Mach Buster By Air Force Flight Test Center History Office, Dr. James Young, Chief Historian After a short stint as a flight instructor at Perrin Field, TX, Yeager was assigned as assistant maintenance officer in the Fighter Section of the Flight Test Division at Wright Field, OH. He was at the right place, at the right time. Wright Field was the center of Army Air Forces R and D and, since it was his job to check out all aircraft coming out of maintenance, he got to fly almost every fighter on the flight line. He demonstrated such exceptional skill that he was selected to fly in air shows and, in September 1945, he made his first trip to Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards AFB) where he flew accelerated service trials on the new P-80A Shooting Star, America’s first operational jet fighter.

Yeager in the cockpit of a P-80A at Wright Field (note his headgear, the crown of a tank corpsman’s helmet snapped onto his original leather flying cap). The P-47D was one of the first aircraft Yeager checked out in after arriving at Wright Field. Considered the father of modern Air Force flight test, Col Albert Boyd was chief of the Flight Test Division. Tough and absolutely unyielding in his standards, he was trying to build a cadre of test pilots that could set industry-wide standards for the profession. Under his scrutiny, only the very best pilots were selected to enter the new test pilot school at Wright Field. After closely observing and flying with Yeager, Boyd handpicked him for the school in January 1946. Col Albert Boyd, chief of the Flight Test Division at Wright Field, would subsequently serve as the first commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB. New P-80As on the ramp during accelerated service trials at Muroc Army Air Field, October 1945. A new P-80A Shooting Star in test over Muroc Army Air Field, October 1945.

With only a high school education, he was challenged by the advanced academics but managed to graduate.“Because of my flying ability,” he later explained “they took mercy on my academics.” In June 1947 Colonel Boyd made one of the most important decisions of his career when he chose one of his most junior test pilots to attempt to become the first person to exceed the speed of sound in the rocket-powered Bell XS-1. He chose Yeager because he considered him the best “instinctive” pilot he had ever seen and he had demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to remain calm and focused in stressful situations. The X-1 program certainly promised to be stressful; many experts believed the so-called “sound barrier” was impenetrable. Yeager and the rest of the small Air Force test team met at Muroc in late July. After three glide flights in the Bell XS-1 rocket research plane which he named Glamorous Glennis, he flew it to a speed of 0.85 Mach on his first powered flight on 29 August. He encountered severe buffeting and sudden nose-up and -down trim changes during his next six flights.

Then, during his eighth flight on 10 Oct., he lost pitch control altogether, as a shock wave formed along the hingeline of the X-1 elevator. He reached Mach 0.997 but without pitch control it would have been foolhardy to proceed. The X-1 had been designed with a moving horizontal tail and Capt Jack Ridley convinced Yeager that by changing its angle of incidence in small increments, he could control the craft without having to rely on the elevator. This had never been attempted at extremely high speeds but Yeager was game to give it a try on the next flight. Ground test of the X-1’s power plant. The airplane was powered by a 4-chamber, 6,000-lb thrust XLR-11 rocket engine. Famous photo shot by Bob Hoover from his FP-80 chase plane as Yeager and the X-1 accelerated past him on 14 October 1947. On 14 Oct. he dropped away from the B-29, fired all four chambers of his engine in rapid sequence and bolted away from the launch aircraft.

Accelerating upward, he shut down two chambers and tested the moveable tail as his Machmeter registered numbers of 0.83, .88 and 0.92. Moved in small increments, it provided effective control. He reached an indicated Mach number of 0.92 as he leveled out at 42,000 feet and relit a third chamber of his engine. The X-1 Glamorous Glennis rapidly accelerated to 0.98 Mach and then, at 43,000 feet, the needle on his Machmeter jumped off the scale. Chuck Yeager had just crossed the invisible threshold to flight faster than the speed of sound. He attained a top speed of Mach 1.06 (700 mph). When Yeager’s achievement was finally declassified in June of 1948, he was quickly accorded celebrity status as “The Fastest Man Alive,” and was awarded the most prestigious honors in aviation.

The words accompanying the Collier Trophy aptly summarized the magnitude of his flight: “This is an epochal achievement in the history of world aviation–the greatest since the first successful flight of the original Wright Brothers’ airplane, forty-five years ago.” Yeager, standing on lift device that descended from the bomb bay of the B-29, just prior to entering the X-1’s cockpit. In 1948, retired Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces Henry H. “Hap” Arnold (in sunglasses) met Yeager on the lakebed for a briefing on his flights in the X-1.

The dates of the 8 Air Force powered flights leading up to breaking the sound barrier: 1st powered flight: 29 Aug 1947 2nd powered flight: 4 Sep 1947 3rd powered flight: 8 Sep 1947 4th powered flight: 10 Sep 1947 5th powered flight: 12 Sep 1947 6th powered flight: 5 Oct 1947 7th powered flight: 8 Oct 1947 8th powered flight: 10 Oct 1947 Bell X-1 Report: Yeager’s pilot report for his 14 October 1947 flight in the X-1. All Mach numbers were presented as “Machi” which meant they were the “indicated” Mach number readings from Yeager’s Mach meter and not necessarily his “true” airspeed at any point in time. Flight instruments of that era were subject to “lag.” Thus, while the Mach meter indicated Mach 0.92, the aircraft could actually be moving at a speed of 0.94 or 0.95 Mach.

View the document. Postflight on the lakebed – Yeager and the X-1. An extremely rare photo of the X-1 just after release from the B-29 Launch aircraft. Punching a Hole in the Sky By Shannon White After Chuck spent one of the low points of his career teaching cadets to fly at Perrin Field, fate intervened on his behalf. A new Air Corps rule said that anyone who had evaded capture during the war could transfer to the base of his choice.Glennis was expecting their first child, and the couple decided it would be wise to be near Hamlin where Chuck’s mother could lend a hand. He got out a map and determined that the nearest base was Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Little did he know how big an impact would result from that simple decision. Because he had been a maintenance officer and crew chief as well as a pilot, Chuck was assigned as Assistant Maintenance Officer in the Fighter Test Section at Wright Field. His duties consisted of flying each aircraft that had undergone maintenance to ensure all the systems worked. This meant no shortage of flying and a seemingly endless array of new planes, including the jet aircraft that were just starting to make their way onto the flight line.

The Flight Test Commander, Colonel Albert Boyd, was a strict disciplinarian and accomplished pilot who demanded the best from his personnel. Boyd took notice of Chuck’s abilities in the cockpit and was impressed by the young Captain’s knowledge of each aircraft’s mechanical systems. In the fall of 1945, Boyd and a group of test pilots headed to Muroc Air Base in the Mojave Desert of southern California for tests on the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the plane that would become America’s first operational jet fighter. Accompanying Boyd and the group was Maintenance Officer Yeager. It was on that trip that Boyd validated his trust in Chuck’s talents. The Colonel selected Chuck over the regular test pilots to ferry one of the unpredictable jets back to Wright Field. Soon, the Colonel asked if Chuck had any interest in attending test pilot school. Chuck had reservations about his lack of education, but he and Colonel Boyd both knew he could out-fly any pilot at Wright Field. While at test pilot school, Chuck befriended a flight engineer named Jack Ridley. Jack’s talent for explaining the complex rules of mathematics and physics in a way Chuck could understand drew the two together.

They would join another friend of Chuck’s and fellow pilot at Wright Field, Bob Hoover, on a project that would change all of their lives – the world of and aviation – forever. Supported by a team from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the Air Force X-1 test team included, from l-r: Lt Ed Swindell (B-29 flight engineer); Lt Bob Hoover (X-1 backup and chase pilot); Maj Bob Cardenas (B-29 launch pilot); Yeager; Dick Frost (Bell X-1 project engineer and chase pilot); Capt Jackie Ridley (Air Force project engineer). Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt Vandenberg presented Yeager with the McKay Trophy for 1947 (awarded each year for the most meritorious flight by an Air Force individual, team or unit). Muroc Air Base was the perfect place for testing aircraft. The weather was good year-round and there were hundreds of miles of nothing but desert and dry lakebeds – nature’s perfect runways. It was here that the Bell Aircraft Company was testing a radical new aircraft designed to go faster than anything before it.

Bell wanted its airplane and its civilian test pilot to be the first to exceed the speed of sound. The X-1 had been built for just that purpose. Since the days of aerial combat in WWII, pilots had experienced unstable controls and terrific structural mishaps when their aircraft reached speeds approaching the speed of sound. It was theorized by many engineers that a physical barrier existed that would prevent flight beyond Mach 1. Yet an argument remained that there were things that flew faster than sound, like bullets. Bell Aircraft started with the shape of a .50-caliber bullet and designed the X-1 to try and break the so-called “sound barrier.” The small plane was powered by four powerful rocket engines and was structurally very sound. It was built to withstand 18 times the force of gravity. Bell was testing the aircraft at Muroc in early 1947 when a disagreement with their pilot, Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin, caused the Air Corps to take notice. Goodlin demanded huge amounts of bonus money for taking the aircraft though Mach 1and Bell had put the project on hold while they tried to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, Colonel Boyd saw the tremendous potential such a program would have on the future of the Air Corps.

He successfully lobbied to get the entire X-1 program under his command and began a search for an experienced test pilot who would not shirk from the risks involved. Chuck threw his name in the hat, but figured his lack of education would prevent him from being selected. Colonel Boyd, on the other hand, was well aware of Chuck’s abilities in the cockpit and his interest in learning everything he possibly could about every airplane he flew. That kind of interest and motivation, coupled with a damned good pilot who could stay focused under pressure, was what Boyd was looking for. He found the perfect combination in Chuck Yeager. Bob Hoover was selected as backup pilot and Jack Ridley as flight engineer for the X-1 project. The men arrived at Muroc to begin chipping away at the sound barrier in July 1947. The program was different than anything Chuck had ever done before. The X-1 did not take off from the ground but instead was carried aloft in the bomb bay of a modified B-29 Superfortress. When the B-29 reached altitude, Chuck climbed out into the bomb bay and through the X-1’s tiny side door.

The door was locked into place and the X-1 was dropped free of the B-29. Once in free flight, the X-1’s rocket engines were fired. The plane carried only a few minutes’ worth of fuel (a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol), then Chuck would glide back to earth and land at Roger Dry Lake. Chuck’s first few flights were non-powered in order to give him a feel for the handling characteristics of the X-1. By August, the team was ready. The X-1s first powered flight with Chuck at the controls was on 29 August, 1947. Chuck was thrilled with the aircraft’s performance. He realized in that one flight that, although he would certainly have to be careful, the sound barrier didn’t stand a chance. The X-1 team followed a strict set of orders from Colonel Boyd about how to proceed with the program. Each flight was to only increase in speed by two hundredths of a Mach number. Taking time with the program, analyzing the data from each flight and deciding how to proceed was the safest way to progress. Chuck was confident about the airplane’s capabilities and the flights progressed into the fall. The sixth powered flight took place on 5 October.

Chuck experienced turbulence and buffeting from shock wave compression for the first time as he reached .86 Mach on that flight. The next flight brought him face-to-face with an unknown phenomenon that would become the biggest result to come from the entire program. On his seventh powered flight, Chuck had the X-1 at .94 Mach when his controls suddenly ceased to function. Shock waves on the plane’s control surfaces made operation impossible. Always cool-headed in such situations, Chuck turned off the plane’s rockets to slow down and jettisoned the remaining fuel. He glided back in to the lakebed and explained to Ridley what had happened. Engineers had predicted that as the plane reached the speed of sound, its nose would pitch up or down. At .94 Mach, however, Chuck had lost the ability to operate the plane’s elevator. Without it, he could not correct for whatever pitch change might occur at Mach 1. It was Jack Ridley who came up with the solution. Ridley believed it was possible for Chuck to control the aircraft using the horizontal stabilizer. Bell had built the capability into the X-1 of controlling the stabilizer’s angle of attack.

Chuck and Jack Ridley gave it a thorough testing on the ground, then told Colonel Boyd they felt confident trying the method in flight. The eighth powered flight followed the same plan as the one before. Chuck tested the horizontal stabilizer control at .96 Mach and Ridley was right. The system worked and Chuck was able to regain control of the X-1. The next flight would come after the weekend, and plans called for taking the X-1 out to .98 Mach. Chuck and Glennis had dinner at Pancho’s, a favorite watering hole for Muroc pilots, on 12 October. After dinner, they decided to take a couple of Pancho’s horses for a ride. As they raced back to the barn, neither of them realized the gate had been closed. Chuck’s horse hit the gate and threw him off. That landing was one of his roughest; he broke two ribs when he hit the ground. He knew Colonel Boyd would never allow him to fly with broken ribs, but Chuck wasn’t about to let the injury keep him out of the cockpit. Glennis drove him to a doctor off base who taped up his ribs.

Chuck knew he could fly with his ribs broken, but he wasn’t sure how to close and latch the X-1’s side door which had to be pulled into place and then latched from the inside. He said as much to Ridley, who fashioned a makeshift handle out of a broomstick. Chuck tried it out in the X-1 on the ground and it worked perfectly. He used the stick to push the lever and lock the cockpit door. The morning of 14 October saw the X-1 team ready for another flight. Plans called for Chuck to reach about .98 Mach. Everything proceeded as planned. Chuck latched the door with the broomstick and settled in. At .94 Mach, he corrected for the plane’s instability using the horizontal stabilizer trim switch. With fuel remaining, he fired another of the X-1’s rockets and watched the Mach meter. At .965 Mach, the meter fluctuated and went off the scale. The ground control operators simultaneously reported they heard what they thought was thunder in the distance. In fact, they had heard the first sonic boom ever produced on earth.

When the Mach needle registered off the scale, Chuck noticed that the X-1 no longer buffeted; supersonic flight was as smooth as could be. He left the airplane in this newly entered realm for about 20 seconds, then turned off two of the four rocket chambers and decelerated back to subsonic speeds. The flight was, relatively speaking, pretty uneventful. Chuck would later say his ride through the sonic wall was nothing more than a poke through Jell-O. Still, Chuck and the rest of the X-1 team knew on 14 October that they had done what they came to the high desert to do. Chuck Yeager punched a hole in the sky that day. 1. Yeager with the Collier Trophy on display in the Flight Test Division at Wright Field. 2. President Harry S. Truman presented the Collier Trophy to the NACA’s John Stack (left), Yeager, and Larry Bell (right) for the greatest achievement in aeronautics in 1947. Background photo: X-1 in flight on October 14, 1947 (photo by Lt. Bob Hoover).

show text Breaking the Sound Barrier | The Greatest Moments in Flight Breaking the Sound Barrier | The Greatest Moments in Flight By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | July 23, 2012 04:43pm ET MORE Chuck Yeager and the X-1 research plane that broke the sound barrier. It can be seen today at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Credit: Air Force Test Center History Office This is part of a SPACE.com series of articles on the Greatest Moments in Flight, the breakthrough events that paved the way for human spaceflight and its next steps: asteroid mining and bases on the moon and Mars. A booming thunder roared across the clear skies of the Mojave Desert on Oct. 14, 1947, as U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager nudged an experimental rocket-powered plane faster than the speed of sound. Though only a handful of people realized it at the time, an aviation record had been set. In 1935, a simplified explanation of the challenges of supersonic flight led to the creation of the term "sound barrier," which seemed to imply a physical wall that could not be overcome.

Bullets and cannon balls had exceeded the speed of sound for hundreds of years, but the question loomed as to whether or not a plane—or a man—could withstand the pressures that accompanied it. The U.S. Air Force set out to answer this looming question. Sponsored message: The plane The Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier with Col. Chuck Yeager at the controls on Oct. 14, 1947. Credit: NASA A bullet-shaped plane, the Bell X-1 (originally designated the XS-1), was modeled after a .50 caliber machine gun bullet, an object known to be stable as it exceeded the speed of sound. Four rocket engines propelled the X-1, and it was built to absorb 18 times the force of gravity. Unlike most planes, it didn't take off from the ground, but was instead dropped from the belly of a B-29 Superfortress, rapidly accelerating in the air on only a few minutes worth of fuel before gliding back to the dry lakes below. The historic plane, nicknamed the "Glamorous Glennis" for Yeager's wife, slowly approached the sound barrier over the course of nine flights.

Muroc Air Force Base—now known as Edwards Air Force Base—in the empty southern California desert provided an ideal spot for testing a variety of experimental vehicles, including the X-1. The pilot The man who would go down as the most famous test pilot in American history was born in West Virginia on Feb. 13, 1923. Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the age of 18 and served in World War II, where he flew 64 combat missions. In 1945, he was assigned as a maintenance officer to the Flight Test Division at Wright Field, Ohio, flight-testing the planes. Col. Albert Boyd, in charge of the test program for the Air Force, invited him to become a test pilot, and Yeager accepted, transferring to Muroc to enroll in the Flight Performance School. It was there that Yeager was selected to be the first person to attempt to exceed the speed of sound. The flight Yeager's first test launch of the Glamorous Glennis took place on Aug. 29, 1947, with subsequent attempts increasing speed by two hundredths of a Mach number.

Mach is a unit of measuring the speed of sound in a given medium; a plane traveling at .2 Mach moves at only two-tenths the speed of sound, while Mach 1 is equal to it. (The speed of sound is about 758 miles (1,220 kilometers) per hour at sea level, and decreases with altitude.) Reaching .86 Mach on the sixth flight, the X-1 began to experience turbulence from the shock wave formed by the compression of the air. On the seventh flight, at Mach .94, Yeager lost the ability to control the plane's elevator, a problem since the shock waves caused the nose to pitch up and down. He cut the engines, dumped the fuel, and landed safely in the desert. Another pilot suggested using the horizontal stabilizer to correct the problem, and on-the-ground tests seemed to suggest the alternate method of control would work. Two days before his historic flight, Yeager was thrown from a horse while riding with his wife and broke two ribs. Knowing that he would never be allowed to fly, he traveled to a doctor off base and had them taped up.

Unable to close and latch the side door by hand, he utilized a broom handle at the suggestion of a fellow pilot. On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager and the X-1 were dropped from the B-29, and quickly accelerated away. When the controls locked up, he successfully used the horizontal stabilizer to keep the plane stable. As the plane accelerated to Mach 1.06, controllers on the ground heard the first sonic boom . (The end of a bullwhip moves faster than the speed of sound. Some say the "crack" is a small sonic boom.) After exceeding the speed of sound, the buffeting decreased, creating a smooth short flight. The plane remained supersonic for approximately 20 seconds before Yeager turned off two of the four engines and slowly decelerated. The follow-up Chuck Yeager continued to act as a flight consultant for the air force until his last flight on October 14, 1997. Credit: Air Force Test Center History Office Yeager continued to fly experimental aircraft for the Air Force, and was appointed director of the Space School, NASA's precursor, where he trained astronauts to prepare for launch.

He flew more than 120 combat missions in Vietnam. After 34 years in the military, he retired in 1975 at the rank of brigadier general, though he continued to serve as a consultant. His last flight as a military consultant occurred 50 years to the day after he broke the sound barrier. In 1979, Tom Wolfe's best-selling nonfiction book, The Right Stuff, and the subsequent 1983 movie popularized Yeager's exploits to a generation too young to remember them. Yeager and his wife, Glennis, had four children before her death in 1990. He remarried in 2003. —Nola Taylor Redd

Question: In what make of aircraft did Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier in October 1947?
Answer: Bell