On This Day In Space: Oct. 14, 1947: Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier (Image Credit: Space.com)
On Oct. 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time!
Yeager was a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force who made history by flying an aircraft faster than the speed of sound.
Yeager made his historic flight in a Bell X-1 rocket plane that he named “Glamorous Glennis” after his wife. Yeager had broken two ribs the night before when he fell off a horse, but that didn’t stop him!
His aircraft was dropped from a Boeing B-29 bomber before accelerating to a speed of Mach 1.07, which is about 821 miles per hour. The speed of sound, Mach 1, is about 760 miles per hour.
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