Word: fasters
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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What he experienced at the critical moment when he crossed the sonic barrier is a tightly guarded secret. But when he looked at his instruments after a few moments, he realized that he was flying actually faster than sound. The terrible sonic wall lay far behind. The X-1 had not disintegrated. It still flew beautifully ("a pilot's dream") and Chuck was still in one piece...
...going with their "projects," i.e., the aircraft on which they are making tests. Colonel Boyd, a strict but much-beloved "Old Man," is there a great deal. His pilots testify that "he does everything we do" and he is one of the six Air Force men who have flown faster than sound in the X-1.* ("The Old Man did fine," says Chuck.) In 1947, Test Pilot Boyd also set a new world's speed record (623.8 m.p.h.) over Muroc Lake in a specially built F-80 (TIME, June...
Performance figures of the X-1 have not been released. The Air Force says that it has flown "hundreds of miles" faster than sound. It has probably flown above Mach 2 (1,324 m.p.h. in the cold upper atmosphere) and reached a height above 60,000 ft., a record for airplanes. The big secret - what happens as it passes Mach 1 -is well kept. Chuck has been so carefully coached on this detail that he knows how to ward off questions before they are asked. Possibly something dramatic happens. It would be just as dramatic, perhaps more so, if nothing...
...instruments that total more than 500 Ibs. This week, as Chuck brought the plane down once again, the records were greedily grabbed, as usual, by Muroc's scientists and airplane designers. Already the records have had a profound effect on high-speed modern aircraft. When production aircraft fly faster than sound, as scientists are sure they will one day, their pilots will thank the X-1, the first airplane to pass through the transonic zone and bring back information...
...speed on the friendly lake. Then he will drive home to Glennis and tell her that the flight was "like all the rest of them." After a while, Chuck Yeager's friends hope, the Old Man will transfer him to some other Air Force job where promotion steps faster than the death that rides in the cockpit with every test pilot. From that day, others, to whom Chuck Yeager has pointed the way, will carry on with flight beyond the sonic wall...