jtotheizzoe:

via wolframalpha:

66 years ago today, Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to break the sound barrier with the aid of The Bell X-1.

Happy Sound Barrier Day!

I’m a bit disappointed that Wolfram|Alpha does not link to the following two music videos when presented with this query:

“Careful What You Wish For” – Bell X1

“Speed of Sound” – Coldplay

The buildup of air and the unstable physics of a wing near Mach 1 meant early flight near the sound barrier was pretty harrowing stuff. Engineering advances soon made it a rather trivial milestone for many aircraft, culminating in now-defunct commercial airliners like the Concorde, flying dreams of an unrealized future where we all flew at speeds beyond sound. 

I highly recommend Amy Shira Teitel’s tale of Yeager breaking the sound barrier (or really anything she writes about space and flight history). As she writes, the man who piloted the rocket-powered Glamorous Glennis that day had (very aerodynamic) balls of steel:

“Yeager was like some sort of airplane whisperer.”

And from that whisper came a boom.