Word: sonically
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...mile-and-a-sixteenth Experimental was an entirely different matter. Starting in the outside post position, and carrying top weight of 126 Ibs., he never made it a race. Uncle Miltie finished eighth, five lengths (i.e., 4½ & a nose & a head) behind the winner, King Ranch's Sonic, which carried only a feathery 105 Ibs. The time...
...tried all sorts of shapes. One design, intended to sidestep shock waves, had curved blades, quite like the swept-back wings of a fast modern fighter. Another had a blade with a pinched-in "waist." Some blades were short and broad so that they could spin rapidly without nearing sonic speed. All these designs proved unsatisfactory...
...which looks something like Republic's Thunderjet. Probable maximum speed of the YAK-17: around 650 m.p.h. Jane's also reports a "research" plane of German design with a maximum speed of nearly 685 m.p.h. This is probably the plane which the Russians claim has passed the sonic barrier...
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...
...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...