"""Airacobra"" and P-63 ""Kingcobra"" fighter aircraft during World War II. Their P-59 ""Airacomet"" fighter was America's first jet-powered aircraft. Postwar, the company produced the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight. The company began developing helicopters in 1941, with the Bell 30 taking its maiden flight in 1943. This early model evolved into the Bell 47, one of the most recognizable aircraft in history. For his role in the X-1's first supersonic flight, he shared the 1947 Collier Trophy with pilot Chuck Yeager and John Stack, a research scientist with the National Advisory Committee"
"test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr., the company eventually furnished the X-1 project with a design based upon four of Wyld's motors which would provide 1,500 pounds of thrust each. On October 14, 1947, American test pilot Chuck Yeager was the first in the world to break the sound barrier, piloting the X-1 with the four Reaction Motors, Inc. engines. Yeager was able to complete his flight safely due to the remarkably smooth flight provided by Wyld's system and despite the fact that he had broken several ribs while horse-riding the previous day. In early 1956, following an extensive bidding"
"Chuck Yeager Charles Elwood Yeager (; born , 1923) is a former United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Yeager's career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army Air Forces. After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of flight officer (the World War II USAAF equivalent to warrant officer) and became a P-51 fighter pilot. After the"
"1957. He sued the post-war German government, unsuccessfully, for the return of the plane, claiming it was his own property. Mutke also made the controversial claim that he broke the sound barrier in 1945 in an Me 262, but mainstream opinion continues to regard Chuck Yeager as the first person to achieve this milestone in 1947 in a Bell X-1. On 9 April 1945, ""Fähnrich"" Mutke, part of the ""Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 2"" (EJG 2) conversion squadron, 3rd flight, took off from Lagerlechfeld in his Messerschmitt Me 262, marked ""Weiße 9"", for a planned high-altitude flight. He was climbing through at an"
"using the end of a broom handle as an extra lever, to allow Yeager to seal the hatch. Yeager broke the sound barrier on , 1947, flying the X-1 ""Glamorous Glennis"" at Mach 1.07 at an altitude of (). over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. The success of the mission was not announced to the public until June 1948. Yeager was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Collier Trophy in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight, and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954. The X-1 he flew that day was later put on permanent display at the Smithsonian"
"pension fund. In August 2008, the California Court of Appeal ruled for Yeager, finding that his daughter Susan had breached her duty as trustee. Yeager and Victoria reside in Penn Valley, California, the location of the General Chuck Yeager Foundation, which supports programs that ""teach the ideals by which General Yeager has lived."" Chuck Yeager Charles Elwood Yeager (; born , 1923) is a former United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Yeager's career began in World War"
"Bud Anderson Clarence Emil ""Bud"" Anderson (born January 13, 1922) is a retired officer in the United States Air Force and a triple ace of World War II. During the war he was the highest scoring flying ace in his P-51 Mustang squadron. This was the same squadron as well known test pilot (and first pilot to break the sound barrier) and ace Chuck Yeager, and they have remained lifelong close friends. Towards the end of Anderson's two combat tours in Europe in 1944 he was promoted to major at 22, a young age even for a highly effective officer"
"NACA. The story of Yeager’s 14 October flight was leaked to a reporter from the magazine ""Aviation Week"", and ""The Los Angeles Times"" featured the story as headline news in their 22 December issue. The magazine story was released on 20 December. The Air Force threatened legal action against the journalists who revealed the story, but none ever occurred. The news of a straight-wing supersonic aircraft surprised many American experts, who like their German counterparts during the war believed that a swept-wing design was necessary to break the sound barrier. On 10 June 1948, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington announced"
"the Department of the Navy, and the newly created Department of the Air Force. Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was shared between the Army Air Forces and its predecessor organizations (for land-based operations), the Navy (for sea-based operations from aircraft carriers and amphibious aircraft), and the Marine Corps (for close air support of Marine Corps operations). The 1940s proved to be important for military aviation in other ways as well. In 1947, Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in his X-1 rocket-powered aircraft, beginning a new era of aeronautics in America. The predecessor organizations"
"China Airlines 747 may have broken the sound barrier in an unplanned descent from 41,000 ft (12,500 m) to 9,500 ft (2,900 m) after an in-flight upset on 19 February 1985. It also reached over 5g. On January 12, 1948, a Northrop unmanned rocket sled became the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. At a military test facility at Muroc Air Force Base (now Edwards AFB), California, it reached a peak speed of 1,019 mph (1,640 km/h) before jumping the rails. On October 15, 1997, in a vehicle designed and built by a team led by Richard Noble,"
"Award for his achievements. On , 2012, on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager did it again at the age of 89, riding in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain David Vincent out of Nellis Air Force Base. In 1973, Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, arguably aviation's highest honor. In December 1975, the U.S. Congress awarded Yeager a silver medal ""equivalent to a noncombat Medal of Honor ... for contributing immeasurably to aerospace science by risking his life in piloting the X-1 research airplane faster than the speed of sound"
"of direct orders for him to not engage, and credits for the kills were thus distributed among his students. After the war, Welch returned to flight testing; this time in the F-100 Super Sabre, with Yeager flying the chase plane. Welch became the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight with this type of aircraft on May 25, 1953. However, stability problems were encountered in the flight test program, and on Columbus Day, October 12, 1954, Welch's F-100A-1-NA Super Sabre, AF Ser. No. 52-5764, disintegrated during a 7-G pullout at Mach 1.55 from 45,000 ft (13,500 m)"
"go to Muroc. This aircraft, later flown by then-Captain (Brigadier General, USAF, Retired) Chuck Yeager, would be the first aircraft in history to successfully exceed the speed of sound in level flight. With the X-1 project transferred, Pinecastle AAF was closed and the entire site was transferred to the City of Orlando in 1947 with a reversal clause for future military use if deemed to be necessary for national defense purposes. As a result of the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States Air Force's Air Training Command (ATC) reacquired and reactivated the facility, renaming it Pinecastle Air Force"
"that the sound barrier had been repeatedly broken by two experimental airplanes. On 5 January 1949, Yeager used Aircraft #46-062 to perform the only conventional (runway) launch of the X-1 program, attaining in 90 seconds. The research techniques used for the X-1 program became the pattern for all subsequent X-craft projects. The X-1 project assisted the postwar cooperative union between U.S. military needs, industrial capabilities, and research facilities. The flight data collected by the NACA from the X-1 tests then proved invaluable to further US fighter design throughout the latter half of the 20th century. In 1997, the United States"
"investigation was conducted at high altitude in mountainous country and was particularly trying and hazardous. By 1969 he had risen through the ranks of Squadron Leader and Wing Commander, working in staff jobs in Kohat and Peshawar, after earlier being based at Mauripur, (Karachi). In 1971, Air Commodore Callaghan was the PAF Chief Inspector, in charge of the verification of Pakistani claims of enemy aircraft kills. Working closely with him was the then United States air attache/adviser to the PAF, USAF Brigadier General Charles ""Chuck"" Yeager (the first man to break the sound barrier). After retiring from the PAF, Air"
"contradicts the claim, contending for Welch's aircraft to break the sound barrier with an underpowered engine was impossible. He notes that the XP-86 airframe was capable of transonic flight, but the interim low-power J35-C-3 limited its performance. The late Bob Hoover, chase pilot for Welch and Yeager, had also disputed the Welch story, stating that Welch was not flying that day because his plane was being repaired. The highest Mach number reached by Welch in 1947, as indicated by official flight test records, was about 0.93, in a maximum power dive from with the engine at 100.8% Military RPM (i.e."
"Performance School (now the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School) and graduated with class 46. In January 1946, Ascani met his new boss, Colonel Al Boyd, who would have a significant impact on both USAF flight test and Ascani's career. Boyd and Ascani worked well together, and Ascani became Boyd’s deputy both at Wright Field and later at Edwards Air Force Base. One notable decision made by Boyd and Ascani was the pilot choice for who would first break the sound barrier. Although Ascani had initially recommended Major Ken Chilstrom, they eventually agreed that Chuck Yeager would pilot the Bell"
"first three production models seeing combat. The F-86 Sabre was also produced under license by Canadair, Ltd as the Canadair Sabre. The final variant of the Canadian Sabre, the Mark 6, is generally rated as having the highest capabilities of any Sabre version. The F-86A set its first official world speed record of on September 15, 1948 at Muroc Dry Lake flown by Major Richard L. Johnson, USAF. Five years later, on 18 May 1953, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier, flying a ""one-off"" Canadian-built F-86 Sabre Mk 3, alongside Chuck Yeager. Col. K. K."
"first production plane to break the sound barrier was an F-86 Canadair Sabre with the first 'supersonic' woman pilot, Jacqueline Cochran, at the controls. According to David Masters, the DFS 346 prototype captured in Germany by the Soviets, after being released from a B-29 at 32800 ft (10000 m), reached 683 mph (1100 km/h) late in 1945, which would have exceeded Mach 1 at that height. The pilot in these flights was the German Wolfgang Ziese. On August 21, 1961, a Douglas DC-8-43 (registration N9604Z) exceeded Mach 1 in a controlled dive during a test flight at Edwards Air Force"
"Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green became the first person to break the sound barrier in a land vehicle in compliance with Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile rules. The vehicle, called the ThrustSSC (""Super Sonic Car""), captured the record 50 years and one day after Yeager's first supersonic flight. In October 2012 Felix Baumgartner, with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull, attempted the highest sky-dive on record. The project would see Baumgartner attempt to jump 120,000 ft (36,580 m) from a helium balloon and become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier. The launch was scheduled for October"
"22 October 1947 (from Northrop airfield in Hawthorne, CA) and immediately proved more promising than its piston engined counterpart. The YB-49 set an unofficial endurance record of staying continually above 40,000 ft (12,200 m) for 6.5 hours. The second YB-49 was lost on 5 June 1948, killing its pilot, Major Daniel Forbes (for whom Forbes Air Force Base was named), co-pilot Captain Glen Edwards (for whom Edwards Air Force Base is named), and three other crew members, one of whom, 1st Lieutenant Edward Lee Swindell, was a crew member on the Boeing B-29 that assisted Chuck Yeager in breaking the"
"October, the Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier. There was a flurry of denunciation of the government's decision to cancel the project, with the ""Daily Express"" taking up the cause for the restoration of the M.52 programme, to no effect. On 10 October 1948, a second rocket was launched, and the speed of Mach 1.38 was obtained in stable level flight, a unique achievement at that time. By this point, the X-1 and Yeager had already reached M1.45 on 25 March of that year. Instead of diving into the sea as planned, the model failed to respond to radio commands"
"for air defence justifiably deserve special mention - Hanna Reitsch describes the volcanic power and acceleration of the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet rocket-fighter. Brig. General Yeager's flight of the Bell XS-1 through the sound barrier in 1947 is reviewed, along with other X-planes, culminating in the incredible North American X-15 hypersonic research aircraft. Thereafter the conclusion of the film details the flight performance and pilots of the Lockheed SR-71, concluding with high speed conceptions of future air-travel, particularly the National Aerospace Plane and HOTOL. Broadcast, The film opens with a dazzling display by the Boeing AH-64 Apache gunship helicopter, accompanied"
"in the book and film ""The Right Stuff"", a tradition was started when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 and Barnes provided him with a free steak dinner. After that, pilots were given a free steak dinner when they personally broke the sound barrier for the first time. Following Yeager's achievement, the sound barrier was broken frequently from Edwards AFB in the late 1940s and early 1950s with Barnes giving free dinners multiple times during the course of a week. Despite a friendship between Barnes and the military, relations grew sour after a change of command"
"when Captain. Charles ""Chuck"" Yeager flew the small bullet-shaped airplane to become the first human to exceed the speed of sound. Four months later, on 10 February 1948, Muroc AAF was re-designated Muroc Air Force Base with the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate military service. Units attached or assigned to the base at the time were the 4144th Army Air Force Base Unit, the 3208th Strategic Bomb Test Squadron along with communications and weather detachments. On 20 August 1948, the 4144th Air Force Base Unit was re-designated as the 2759th AF Base Unit and with"
"Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Yeager went on to break many other speed and altitude records. He was also one of the first American pilots to fly a MiG-15, after its pilot, No Kum-sok, defected to South Korea. Returning to Muroc, during the latter half of 1953, Yeager was involved with the USAF team that was working on the X-1A, an aircraft designed to surpass Mach 2 in level flight. That year, he flew a chase aircraft for the civilian pilot Jackie Cochran as she became the first woman to fly faster than sound. On , 1953, the U.S."
"desert salt pan whose hard dry lake surface provides a natural extension to Edwards' runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the base good for flight testing. The lake is a National Historic Landmark. The base has helped develop virtually every aircraft purchased by the Air Force since World War II. Almost every United States military aircraft since the 1950s has been at least partially tested at Edwards, and it has been the site of many aviation breakthroughs. Notable occurrences at Edwards include Chuck Yeager's flight that broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, test"
", piloted by Heini Dittmar, and landed with almost all of the vertical rudder surface broken away from flutter. This record was not broken in terms of absolute speed until 6 November 1947 by Chuck Yeager in flight number 58 that was part of the Bell X-1 test program, with a , or Mach 1.35 supersonic speed, recorded at an altitude of nearly . However, it is unclear if Dittmar's flight achieved sufficient altitude for its speed to be considered supersonic, as the X-1 did. The X-1 never exceeded Dittmar's speed from a normal runway ""scharfer Start"" liftoff. Heini Dittmar"
"9, 2012, but was aborted due to adverse weather; subsequently the capsule was launched instead on October 14. Baumgartner's feat also marked the 65th anniversary of U.S. test pilot Chuck Yeager's successful attempt to break the sound barrier in an aircraft. Baumgartner landed in eastern New Mexico after jumping from a world record 128,100 feet (39,045 m), or 24.26 miles, and broke the sound barrier as he traveled at speeds up to 833.9 mph (1342 km/h or Mach 1.26). In the press conference after his jump, it was announced he was in freefall for 4 minutes, 18 seconds, the second"
"rate of climb was only a disappointing per minute. North American, however, had already contracted with General Electric for more powerful J47 engines for the production P-86As. In his book ""Aces Wild: The Race for Mach 1"" (1998), fellow North American test pilot Al Blackburn speculates that Welch may have broken the sound barrier 2 weeks before Chuck Yeager in an early flight of the XP-86 prototype. Welch himself never made that claim. Blackburn based his contention on interviews of eyewitnesses, former North American employees, and access to contemporary historical accounts. Robert Kempel, author of ""The Race For Mach 1"""
"and loss of surprise (radar warning to the enemy) cost of carrying them was not practically justified. By the early 1980s, the American AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missile in its ""M"" version was realistically exceeding a 60% kill rate, and was integrated onto the F-20. Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, test pilot and the first man to break the sound barrier, referred to the F-20 as ""the finest fighter"". Despite its performance and cost effectiveness, the F-20 lost out for foreign sales against the similarly capable, more expensive F-16, which was being procured in large numbers by the U.S. Air Force and"
"1970s, both were later retired without being replaced by similar designs. The last flight of a Concorde in service was in 2003. Although Concorde and the Tu-144 were the first aircraft to carry commercial passengers at supersonic speeds, they were not the first or only commercial airliners to break the sound barrier. On 21 August 1961, a Douglas DC-8 broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.012 or 1,240 km/h (776.2 mph) while in a controlled dive through 41,088 feet (12,510 m). The purpose of the flight was to collect data on a new design of leading-edge for the wing. A"
"engines flamed out, and after the short period of smooth flight, the buffeting resumed and the aircraft began shaking violently again. He fought to regain control and re-light the engines eventually reducing the speed below 500 km/h. After a difficult landing, it was found that his plane was missing many rivets and also had distorted wings. At the time, Mutke did not understand the reasons for this strange behavior. Only after learning about the supersonic flights of Chuck Yeager in 1947 did he attribute these phenomena to the effects of supersonic flight and claim to have broken the sound barrier—years"