Dhe shouldn’t have completed a flight that made his flying life a legend. On October 14, 1947, American Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the so-called sound barrier in his Bell X-1. In the experimental rocket plane, it reaches a speed of 1125 km/h or Mach 1.05 in level flight over the Mojave Desert and is therefore faster than sound.
Aside from his achievements as a pilot, what makes Yeager a legend is the circumstances of that flight. Two days earlier, he broke his horse while riding with his wife Glennis, after whom he named the Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis”, two ribs when he fell off his horse. Knowing that this would render him temporarily unfit to fly, he does not go to a military hospital for treatment as required.
He gets emergency care from a civilian doctor. But because the X-1 has an entry flap that he could not have closed from the inside with his injury, he confides in a friend. He prepares a shortened broomstick for him, Yeager smuggles it into the cockpit and with his help he manages to close the hatch. The rest is history.
After serving in World War II, Yeager began his career as a test pilot for the Air Force in 1945, which culminated in 1947 when the sound barrier was broken for the first time. Yeager sets numerous other flight records for speed, climb rate or altitude. In November 1953, another US military pilot was the first to reach Mach 2 in a horizontal record flight. But just weeks later, Yeager reclaimed the crown in a Bell X-1A as “the fastest human alive” while flying at Mach 2.44, almost two and a half times the speed of sound. This almost costs him his life, because the X-1A becomes uncontrollable for a short time and he can only land it safely with difficulty.
First supersonic flights
In the back seat of a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, the veteran pilot, who died two years ago, surpassed the sound barrier again in 2012 at the age of 89 as probably the oldest person in a military jet. For such fighter planes, reaching Mach 2 for a short time is almost standard today.
The Russian Tupolev Tu-144, followed by its western counterpart, the British-French Concorde, succeeded in making the first supersonic flights for civil aircraft. The Concorde prototype 001 flies for the first time on March 2, 1969. Another milestone follows on October 1 of the same year: Mach 1 is exceeded. A good year later, Mach 2 has been reached. It is the beginning of a new era in civil aviation. With the help of the Concorde, the world seems to shrink from 1976 onwards. If the Concorde also has a strong tailwind, it is incredibly fast. Her record for an Atlantic crossing from New York to London is two hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds. A maximum of Mach 2.23 or more than twice the speed of sound, around 2400 kilometers per hour, is only achieved by the Franco-British four-engine engine.
75 years of supersonic flight
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crazy
No civil aircraft is faster – but at the price of extreme kerosene consumption and an exorbitant noise level. However, supersonic aircraft may only be flown over the sea, as the loud bang on the ground would be unacceptable to the population. In addition, neither British Airways nor Air France ever makes a profit with the Concorde, despite expensive first-class ticket prices, but they continue to operate it for reasons of prestige.