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American test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier, reaching Mach 1.06 on board the Bell X-1, an experimental rocket-powered aircraft.
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Chuck Yeager
American flying ace and test pilot (1923–2020)
Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Sound barrier
Sudden increase of undesirable effects when an aircraft approaches the speed of sound
The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, these effects were seen as constituting…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Mach number
Dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics
The Mach number, often only Mach, is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Bell X-1
Experimental rocket-powered aircraft
The Bell X-1 is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics–U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived during 1944 and designed and built…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Rocket-powered aircraft
Aircraft which uses a rocket engine for propulsion
A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typically for at most a few minutes of…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)