[Mike Fieschko]

Here are some images:







Capt. Charles "Chuck" Yeager stands in front of the Bell X-1 for a publicity shot in 1947. Yeager was the first man to break the legendary sonic barrier when he took the X-1 to Mach 1.06 Oct. 14, 1947. (Courtesy photo)

[gridlock]

Chuck Yeager: The best there ever wuz...

[tellw]

Amazing achievement and didn't he do it with a broken rib?

[Delta 21]

Thumbs up to Chuck Yeager!

[RayChuang88]

What's interesting was that if it weren't for the stupidity of the British government the British-built Miles M 52 would have gotten there first. What we know now is that because of the design of the horizontal tail surfaces on the M 52 (the same concept was used on the XS-1), the plane would have safely exceeded the speed of sound.

[Jalapeno]

might be of interest.

Some scientists thought you would die if you went that fast....

[Timm]

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.

In every article about supersonic flight, there is the obligatory mention of "critics" who said "it couldn't be done". It's pro forma; I think it's even in the _Chicago Manual of Style_. Anyone writing on supersonic flight has to mention anonymous critics who said it was impossible.

Of course, no informed person thought it was impossible to fly faster than sound, I'm sure. Bullets and shells traveled faster than sound. Supersonic rockets had already been built and flown by 1947. V2 rockets had even been guidable at supersonic speeds, so everyone must have known that it was possible to employ some flight controls at speed.

Don't get me wrong. Piloted supersonic flight was a great acheivement. It wasn't great because infomred people said it was impossible, is all I saying...

[TalBlack]

As a kid in the early sixties I remember planes over Long Island breaking the sound barrier. It's a very distinctive sound. But it scared people and provoked complaints (I was 5 and I thought it was cool!).

I think a bit of PC may have crept into the reproduction of the story some where along the line. Back in the day the likliest use was "first MAN to..." this story uses "person". Back then people werent concious of any political/social implications and used 'person' and 'man' interchangably buy I was a big reader of History and high accomplishment and that 'first person' glares out at me. Though I will admit that I may be hypersensitive living in the PC age (Call it reverse PC sensitivity!)

Didn't Yeager get pushed out of the Moon program, starting with Merc or Gemini because he didn't have the academic backround ( he wasn't an engineer)that the John Glenns had? If so it shows you how hard the pre PC meritocracy pushed. Somehow I doubt he would have been a drag on the program. I mean Chuck Yeager epitomizes American 'can-do!"

[jscd3]

A great deed, but a test pilot for North American named George Welch actually broke the speed of sound about two weeks before Yeager and the X-1 flying a prototype of the F-86. He repeated the feat "officially" about 6 months later, if memory serves.

The cool thing about Welsh was that he was a P-40 pilot at Pearl Harbor assigned to a tiny sattelite airstrip who always stayed up all night playing poker...as a result he and a buddy were awake when the first Jap planes flew over. As a result, he and a wingman were able to get in the air early, allowing him to shoot down several planes that day. His story was one of several featured in the movie Tora, Tora, Tora.

[nightdriver]

The picture shows a hinge in the horizontal stabilizer indicative of being an elevtor. The elevator of the first X-1 was discovered in mid-flight to be useless at supersonic speed and Yeager only recovered control and saved the plane by clear thinking and judicious use of the trim function, which utilized moving the entire horizontal stabilizer.

The design was subsequently changed to make the entire stabilizer the elevator, and the "flying tail" was born.

[Vision]

Cool, God Bless you sir