Word: x
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Chuck knew now that the B-29 was in a flat power glide to increase its speed to 240 m.p.h., minimum flying speed of the loaded X-1. "B29 eight zero zero," chanted Major Cardenas, "30 seconds to drop time...
...Piece. Silently and smoothly the X-1 cut away from the B29. For an instant it drove forward and downward. Then Chuck turned on the nitrogen pressure and fired the lox and alcohol in one of the rocket chambers. A spurt of white dots (visible shock waves) spurted out behind and grew into a long plumelike "contrail" (condensed water vapor...
...sudden acceleration hit Chuck Yeager like a sledge hammer and the X-1 climbed high at tremendous speed. ("It's like having hold of something by the tail and not daring let go.") At carefully timed intervals he fired the other rockets. Each gave the little orange airplane another mighty push. Chuck didn't hear much noise; he was leaving sound behind...
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...
When the fuel was gone (it lasts only 2½ minutes at full power), the X-1 slowed down and was back on the other side of sound's great wall. Chuck scavenged the last of the dangerous oxygen and alcohol from the system by flushing it with nitrogen. Then he began the long glide to earth, listening to the clock ticking on the instrument panel. He somehow found this "awful boring," he says, and welcomed his spurt of interest when he landed the X-1 at close to 165 miles an hour and rolled to a stop...