Nov. 16, 1940, test pilot W. H. McAvoy returning from test flight at Ames, Iowa | Credit to NASA Article
Jet plane right before breaking the sound barrier | Credit to The Telegraph
The Sound Barrier
"As an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, approximately 761 miles per hour, the increased pressure compresses the air into a liquid. That puts stress on the craft."
-"Breaking the Sound Barrier: The Story of Chuck Yeager" by Susan
Harkins p. 9
Breaking the Sound Barrier Wasn't Simple
Victims of the Sound Barrier
"There are certainly many pilots who approached the sound barrier but didn't live to tell about it. "
-Article from Skeptoid by Brian Dunning
" This era of the first jet and rocket-powered planes was a time of risk; NACA and U.S. Air Force test pilots put their lives on the line every time they strapped themselves into these vehicles, and some of them didn't come back. "
-NASA Test Pilot Article 2006, by Gray Creech
"In September 1946, the British aviation world was shocked when test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. (...) died on a test flight while investigating Swallow's high-speed handling characteristics. (...) In fact three Swallows were built and all three crashed killing their test pilots. It seemed that transonic speeds and (...) airplanes did not mix."
-"Aviation Records in the Jet Age: The Planes and Technologies Behind the Breakthroughs" by William A. Flanagan
Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. 1946 | Credit to "Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier" by R. Conrad Stein p. 13
The Right Plane was Needed
" During World War II, numerous Allied and Axis pilots came to grief when they dove high-performance fighters at full power during air combat and encountered mysterious forces that froze their controls or ripped their aircraft apart. "
-Article from The Washington Post by John G.
Leyden
Plane hitting the sound barrier and breaking apart | Credit to drawing in "Chuck Yeager Goes Supersonic" by Alan Biermann, illustrated by Yaejin Lim p. 21
G-force was a Challenge to Humans
" This phenomenon was first identified in Great Britain in World War I (circa 1918-1919) as "fainting in the air." In the United States G-LOC was first encountered in 1922 during the Pulitzer Trophy Air Race.
G-LOC Diagram | Credit to AvMed Article
(...) G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) is defined as "a state of altered perception wherein (one's) awareness of reality is absent as a result of sudden, critical reduction of cerebral blood circulation caused by increased G force."
-PubMed Article by Burton RR
The Race to Break the Sound Barrier Continued
"Could this be overcome? How? What about the mysterious "Sound Barrier?" Was it something that could be broken or would planes continue to crash against the barrier, sending their pilots to their deaths? "
-NASA Sound Barrier Article
Chuck Yeager the First Human to Break the Sound Barrier, October 14, 1947
"The difficulties (...) did not discourage them. The attempt to reach Mach 1 was scheduled for the ninth test flight, on October 14, 1947."
-"Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier" p.20 by Conrad Stein
Chuck Yeager Breaking the Sound Barrier October 14, 1947, King Rose Archives YouTube
"One of the ground crew also radioed in to report hearing a distant boom that sounded like thunder. Later, they would all come to realize that the ground crew had heard the very first sonic boom."
-"Breaking the Sound Barrier: The Story of Chuck Yeager" p. 8 by Susan Harkins
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The Bell X-1 | Credit to the Library of Congress
Chuck Yeager's Jet - the Bell X-1
"The Bell X-1 airplane (...) had a pointed nose ,with thin, sharp- edged wings that could cut through the compressed air like a knife."
-"Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier" p.15 by R. Conrad Stein
Go back to Development of Faster Planes
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Go to G-Force
Sky background Personal Photograph
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Cochran knew that breaking the sound barrier was her ultimate goal to make women equal to men. She was determined to achieve this. She chose Chuck Yeager to be her instructor.
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