BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER: THE BELL X-1 STORY

In 1947, plenty of serious people believed the sound barrier might be a real wall — that an
airplane approaching Mach 1 would be shaken apart. One orange rocket plane settled the
question.

THE WALL IN THE SKY

Pilots in the fastest fighters of World War II had met violent buffeting and frozen controls as they neared the speed of sound, and some hadn't come back.

The Bell X-1 was built for one purpose: fly through that regime deliberately, with instruments, and find out what was really there.

OCTOBER 14, 1947

Dropped from the bomb bay of a B-29 over the California high desert, Chuck Yeager lit the X-1's four rocket chambers and pushed the little orange airplane — named Glamorous Glennis for his wife — past Mach 1.

The 'barrier' announced itself as a distant boom rolling across the desert floor, and then smooth flight on the far side.

THE SECRET

Yeager flew that day with two broken ribs from a horseback riding accident, sealing the hatch with a length of broom handle because he couldn't lean over.

The achievement itself was classified — the public didn't learn the sound barrier had fallen until months later.

WHAT IT OPENED

Supersonic flight went from theory to engineering discipline in a single afternoon.

Every fast jet, and every spacecraft that rides a rocket through Mach 1 on the way up, flies through the door the X-1 opened.

THE SOUND BARRIER WAS NEVER A WALL — IT WAS A DOOR WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO FLY THROUGH IT.