Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force made history as the first individual to surpass the speed of sound.
Born in 1923 in Myra, West Virginia, Yeager served as a combat pilot during World War II, completing 64 missions over Europe. He claimed 13 German aircraft and was shot down himself over France; however, he managed to evade capture with help from the French Underground. Following the war, he was selected as one of the volunteers to test the experimental X-1 rocket plane, constructed by Bell Aircraft Company to investigate the feasibility of supersonic flight.
For many years, numerous aviators were convinced that human beings were not designed to fly faster than sound, speculating that the increase in drag at transonic speeds would disintegrate any aircraft. This perception shifted on October 14, 1947, when Yeager piloted the X-1 above Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to 25,000 feet by a B-29 and subsequently released from the bomb bay, soaring to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier for that elevation). This rocket plane, affectionately named “Glamorous Glennis,” was engineered with slender, straight wings and a fuselage streamlined after a .50-caliber bullet.
Due to the project’s secrecy, the accomplishments of Bell and Yeager remained undisclosed until June 1948. Yeager proceeded to work as a test pilot and in 1953, he achieved a speed of 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. In 1975, he retired from the U.S. Air Force, attaining the rank of brigadier general.
