Word: sonically
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...with an infectious grin and an easy West Virginia drawl. What makes Chuck Yeager outstanding, even among the crack pilots at Muroc, is the fact that his name is certain to go down prominently in aviation history books. Chuck Yeager was the first man to break through the dreaded "sonic wall" and fly faster than sound...
What violence these would do no one knew, but so many airplanes had met disaster far below sonic speed that the "sonic wall" had earned a fearful reputation. Designers and pilots spoke of it with awe. It was widely believed that when an airplane reached the speed of sound, it would disintegrate...
...could hear the clock ticking on the instrument panel. After each landing, Captain Jackie L. Ridley, Muroc flight test engineer, analyzed the records of the X-1's instruments. On the whole, they were encouraging. But no one was sure what would happen at the critical speed. The sonic wall was still unpierced; the big test still lay ahead. Chuck is reported to have remarked cheerfully: "I'll be back all right. In one piece, or a whole lot of little pieces...
...with a single earphone. But the Buck Rogers buffs might prefer a football type helmet, which the American Junior Aircraft Co. of Portland, Ore. displayed at the 46th annual American Toy Fair. It carried a tone transmitter (see cut) which controls the steering of a glider airplane by sonic vibrations. A steady sound tone makes it fly straight, interruptions turn it alternately right and left (price: $25). The 10,000 U.S. retail buyers attending the toy fair did so much early Christmas shopping that the Toy Manufacturers of the U.S.A. reported that 1949's business would be just...
...merely a flying laboratory, but the F-86A is a practical military aircraft (see BUSINESS). One of the secrets of its speed is probably its swept-back wings. When the plane itself is flying faster than sound, the air passes over the back-slanted wing at less than sonic speed, and so makes less trouble...