Chuck Yeager

     Ya know, writing my last post got me thinking about a documentary I watched recently called breaking the sound barrier. This documentary showed me how groundbreaking what Chuck Yeager did really was. Growing up around here you hear a lot about Chuck Yeager, I mean Lincoln county is really proud to be the home of Chuck Yeager, I mean what with 214 being called "yeager highway" and stuff like that. I guess all of WV is proud of him, Charleston airport was renamed Yeager airport in his honor. Despite all that, I don't think people really stop to think about what he did.
     Before Chuck Yeager reached supersonic flight, people thought it impossible. I mean it was called the sound barrier for a reason. People thought we had already reached the limits of what a person could do in an airplane in WWII. Pilots had died before this, attempting mach 1.
    As part of the air force's project x1, Chuck, only 24 years old, flew the Bell x1rocket, which was shaped like a .50 caliber bullet because engineers knew these could travel supersonic speed, faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1) on October 14th, 1947
     He was already a decorated combat pilot in WWII. The Bell x1, nicknamed "glamorous Glennis" had a custom rocket engine named xlr-11.
     A jet engine uses air from the atmosphere around it, while a rocket uses liquid oxygen. So, while faster, it can't fly as long.

     The x1 had to be dropped from a B29 mothership. The bomb bay of the B29 wasn't meant for humans to be in, but Chuck had to make his way down to the x1 and get in. To make matters worse, Chuck had three broken ribs that he got from being thrown off a horse the night before, on the day he broke the sound barrier. He was sore and could barely move but he wanted this bad and wasn't gonna let a few broken ribs stop him, he had to shut the hatch to his plane with a broom handle. I think this is a good example of how tough and determined us West Virginians are.
When he hit mach 1, everybody knew it because it made a loud sonic boom. Now, the United States is the leader in advanced aviation.

     Keep in mind this wasn't his first attempt at mach 1 and I think its worth mentioning that even his failed attempts were still faster than any man had ever flown before. He's no tom cruise though, flying mach 10+ in top gun: mavrick, haha. Btw, mach 10 has never been done in a manned aircraft.
  
After the flight, Navy pilots and other critticks said it didn't count because he didn't take off from the ground. So, Chuck said "ok, we'll do it your way" and did it again from the ground on January 5th, 1949.
Chuck Yeager in the "glamorous Glennis" X1
(Sourced from Chuckyeager.org




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