“I thought I was seeing things,” Yeager would later write about seeing the Machmeter needle creep past Mach 1. 14,1947, the 24-year-old Yeager flew the Bell X-1 into the history books. However, a contingent stabilizer implemented by the team of aircraft engineers saved the plane and Yeager.įour days later, on Oct. It appeared, at least for a moment, as if the legendary physical barrier to break the speed of sound was more than mere legend. Yeager lost control of the X-1’s elevator, effectively rendering the aircraft uncontrollable. On the eighth flight, the aircraft pushed up to Mach 0.997, but it wasn’t without near catastrophe. On the fourth flight, the airplane reached Mach 0.91. Yeager piloted it to a Mach 0.89 on his second flight. On its first flight, the Bell X-1 reached Mach 0.85. #Sound barrier speed seriesThe Air Force wisely decided to gradually push their test aircraft to Mach 1 through a series of successive flights. No matter the elevation or weather, breaking the sound barrier simply means pushing the Machmeter’s needle to Mach 1. The speed of sound ranges from 760 mph at sea level to approximately 660 mph at 36,000 feet. After studying artillery shells, Ernest Mach, an Austrian scientist, discovered the phenomena associated with the speed of sound and invented the Machmeter, which indicates the ratio of the airspeed to the speed of sound. Since the speed of sound varies by altitude and weather, the most useful measure of breaking it is a Machmeter. 29, 1947, the Bell X-1 made its first powered flight in the pursuit of supersonic flight with Yeager at the controls above the California desert. And only weeks after the British pilot died aboard the Swallow, on Aug. The incident crippled the British supersonic program.īut America’s own attempt was too far advanced to simply abandon. The aircraft completely disintegrated during a high-speed dive.ĭe Havilland’s body washed up in the Thames River 10 days later. was killed while testing an experimental jet-powered aircraft, dubbed the “Swallow,” in preparation for an attempt to break the mythical sound barrier. British test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. This angst was further stoked by a highly publicized incident in 1946. The pilots said it was as if they had hit a “brick wall in the sky.” Thus, the legend of a sound barrier-an actual physical barrier preventing supersonic flight-was born. And this belief wasn’t entirely without merit.ĭuring World War II, pilots reported “mysterious forces” that froze their controls or broke pieces of their aircraft during high-speed dives. Since the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, it was a commonly held belief that doing so would simply destroy an aircraft. Barriersīreaking the sound barrier took undeniable courage and bravery. The goal of the flight? Pioneer supersonic flight. Chuck Yeager only had a few minutes’ worth of fuel. The four-rocket-propelled Bell X-1 piloted by U.S. During a warm October day high above the California desert in 1947, a B-29 Superfortress dropped an experimental aircraft from its bomb bay.
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