Chuck Yeager Broke Sound Barrier 60 Years Ago - VOA Story
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American test pilot Chuck Yeager flew a plane through the sound barrier on October 14th, 1947. Some say only the Wright brothers — Orville and Wilbur — can claim a more significant achievement in the history of flight. At the time, Britain and Germany also were trying to develop a plane that could break the sound barrier, but the United States soon won out with its X-1.
It was more rocket than plane, developed specifically to fly through the shock waves of the sound barrier, with Yeager as pilot. “About half of the engineers gave us no chance at all of ever successfully flying beyond the speed of sound. They said it’s a so-called barrier and the airplane would go out of control or disintegrate, but I didn’t look at it that way.”
Yeager said he had confidence in the craft. He named it “Glamorous Glennis” for his wife, and described its bullet-shaped body as cozy. “Your knees were just about equal with your shoulders so you could pull a lot of Gs [extreme pull of gravity] without blacking out. It didn’t have a prop on it. It didn’t have a jet engine. It was just strictly a rocket and it was real slick to fly.”.
To save fuel the X-1 was lifted by a modified B-29 bomber, then dropped and powered by four liquid oxygen rockets.
As Yeager’s X-1 approached aviation history and Mach 1 [the speed of sound], the plane began buffeting violently. Continuing to accelerate it smoothed out, and for the first time a sonic boom filled the atmosphere.
The success was quickly followed by an entire series of aircraft flying faster and higher than ever before. There were disasters and near disasters.
The X-15 eventually flew to the edge of space at four, five and six times the speed of sound. Yeager went on to direct the Space School at Edward’s Air Force Base. And ten years ago, the man who first broke the sound barrier did it once again for his last time. Yeager made one last flight faster than the speed of sound in 1997 on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight
Duration : 0:2:17
June 22nd, 2009
im reading his bio
im reading his bio
June 22nd, 2009
my last name is …
my last name is yeaager i don’t know if we are related though but still
June 22nd, 2009
boy its funny i am …
boy its funny i am related to the wright bros and i live in west virginia and chuck yeager is from wv
June 22nd, 2009
Hey R3VIVER, …
Hey R3VIVER, there’s no need to be rude about the Americans. Who broke the sound barrier on land? What Thrust SSC managed was to my mind a much more impressive achievement…
June 22nd, 2009
the americans got …
the americans got the technogoly for sound barrier from the briitish
they made an agreement with the brittish but the basterds did not hold their side of the deal ing basterds once again the british made it possible but america gets the glory
June 22nd, 2009
Yeager mentions …
Yeager mentions half the engineers thinking supersonic flight was impossible.
Obviously British Miles engineers did not think so, nor Supersonic interceptor designer Alexander Lippisch and the German engineers who had conducted tests in the numerous German supersonic windtunnels such as the Kochel Kanal which were later captured and reassembled in the USA. And new ones built in the us from german plans and supervised by their scientists like Herman Kurzweg, Richard Lehnert, Gerhard Eber et al
June 22nd, 2009
The X1 was the …
The X1 was the first to break the sound barrier just as truthfully as the vs-300 was the first helicopter flying in 1940.
Better check the history books against this footage.
watch?v=64fgG2CnHn0
Then read about Heini Dittmar and Hans Guido Mütke
June 22nd, 2009
.na,ndc, …
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June 22nd, 2009
The only witnesses …
The only witnesses of the Wright brothers flight were themselves. The world knows that the first airplane to fly was made by the brazilian Alberto Santos Dummont on France. On the centanary of his first flight, they flew the 14-bis again on France, while on the centenary of the Wright brothers flight, they tried to fly the Kittyhawk and ended stuck in the mud. I love America, but lets give credit for the real inventors. Americans like to think that they invented everything.
June 22nd, 2009
they always claim …
they always claim everything
June 22nd, 2009
my last name is …
my last name is yeager hehe yayy.
June 22nd, 2009
As a Heinkel fan I …
As a Heinkel fan I have learned that Ernst Heinkel was never a Nazi, and so lost a lot of work and favor. Near end of WW2 he was desparate that his factories would fall into US, not USSR hands. They did, but we stole everything of use, destroyed the rest, and tortured him in custody for many months. Finally, with a low opinion of us, we handed him over to the UK who treated him well and helped him to get his facotries running again, making scooters and bubblecars. UK also helped VW re-start.
June 22nd, 2009
Denis Bancroft …
Denis Bancroft invented the all-flying tail for the M52. When our govt realised that UK was about to break sound barrier, we forced UK govt to close Miles and send M52 to Bell. We did not “steal”, but we DID bully. They owed us hundreds of billions of dollars for our part in WW1 and WW2. UK was forced to give us all their best tech. We DID steal hugely from the Germans, and so became great. I wish more Americans were great enough to learn history and respect other nation’s achievements.
June 22nd, 2009
again i feel …
again i feel compelled to remind you that many of your ancestors were in fact british, mainly religious nutjobs and bankrupt middleclass types who were unwanted by us
June 22nd, 2009
‘ …
‘bigchiefmingingbolok’
I have no interest in your ‘facts’. My point is that you seem driven to prove the British provenance of defacto American achievements, with intent to ridicule - a mindset that betrays a sense of insecurity, and perhaps inferiority. Whatever, I don’t care. America, in my view, is the greatest nation conceived by man, and I will support her against the growing onslaught of hostility and ignorant commentary.
Have a nice day, mate.
June 22nd, 2009
“empire” who gives …
“empire” who gives a about that? i was making a statement about the fact that without the british, yager would not have been the first to break the sound barrier (officially), a fact that most americans deny, or do not even know about, if you research from non-american history, you’ll find that the british were months ahead of the americans, US pressure meant that all technology had to be passed over and our project scrapped, just so the US didn’t look stupid on the world stage.
June 22nd, 2009
‘ …
‘bigchiefmingingbolok’.. another anti-U.S. Angowretch with a monomania for ridiculing Americans, while denying them credit for anything. Reminds me of a Russian who once claimed Shakespeare as one of their own!
It’s ok, chief, the ’stupid yanks’ understand that losing empire must have been a terribly wrenching experience for some Brits. Lol
June 22nd, 2009
The Wright brothers …
The Wright brothers had the first aircraft in the sense we know it today: powered, controlled and sustained flight.
If you consider Alberto Santos-Dumont’s invention to be proper flight, you must also allow several other inventors prior to him, back at least as far as 1890.
History considers the Wright brothers the inventors of the aeroplane because theirs was the first to fit all the criteria we look for in aircraft.
June 22nd, 2009
first American to …
first American to break sound barrier in a British supplied design. says it all
June 22nd, 2009
first american to …
first american to break sound barrier in a brittish supplied design. Germans did it in 1941 but it suits the usa for that to remain unofficial
June 22nd, 2009
I met Chuck Yeager …
I met Chuck Yeager and his lovely wife Victoria last night at a Christmas party in the West Virginia Governor’s Mansion. It was a great honor.
June 22nd, 2009
i agree completley …
i agree completley and yet some americans seem to claim they are better than other countries coz they broke the barreier first, they always forget to mention that many of the crucial ideas were ones that they stole from the british. it’s a simple fact that british people have invented all most everything- it’s what we are good at, like italians and food, new zealand at rugby and japanese with gadgets
June 22nd, 2009
chuck yaeger broke …
chuck yaeger broke the sound barrier in a plane that was designed by the miles company and stolen by the US government when they realised we would beat them to the sound barrier, the all moving tail was a british design stolen by yanks, we even had a jet engine capable of taking the m52 supersonic, stupid yanks had to use a rocket, the only thing american about this farce is the pilot, even NASA owes its existence to german engineers,no american engineers clever enough
June 22nd, 2009
Santos Dummond was …
Santos Dummond was the first, not the Wright brothers…
June 22nd, 2009
Santos Dummond …
Santos Dummond thats create the 1º plane in the world, u s.