It was 65 years ago today... on October 14, 1947... that Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. Just last year Gen. Yeager returned to Edwards AFB to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Air Force Flight Test Center... and we noted the occasion (this is part of a post):
A Milestone and Schooling
From the Usual USAF Source...
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager and Brig. Gen. Robert C. Nolan II, Air Force Flight Test Center commander, get ready to fly faster than the speed of sound in an F-16 during a morning flight over the Mojave Desert, Oct. 14, 2011. Yeager visited Edwards, where he broke the sound barrier in 1947, to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the AFFTC. (U.S. Air Force photo/Rob Densmore)
Chuck Yeager in front of the X-1 he christened Glamorous Glennis (Wikipedia) Sixty Years into the Unknown: A single F-16D accelerated through the sound barrier, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Air Force Flight Test Center pushing the edge of the envelope at Edwards AFB, Calif. With retired Brig Gen. Chuck Yeager in the cockpit, together with AFFTC Commander Brig. Gen. Robert Nolan, the F-16's sonic wave reverberated, echoing Yeager's first supersonic flight in 1947. "When the Air Force Flight Test Center was established in 1951, Edwards Air Force Base had already become well known as the place where aviation history was being written," said Nolan, speaking at the celebration. Since then, the center "has been on the cutting edge of every major development that has transformed the field of flight—the turbo jet engine, supersonic and hypersonic flight," among many others, he added, addressing the hundreds gathered to mark the anniversary on Oct. 14 among test aircraft in Edward's hanger 1600. (Edwards report by Kate Blais)Gen. Yeager is one of my heroes and it's good to see him still flying faster than the speed o' sound, even if he isn't the one at the controls. I spent some time on Edwards AFB in the wayback, living in crappy base housing that was prolly built around the time Gen. Yeager first broke the sound barrier. Blog-Bud Glenn is still there, working as a crew chief on a Lawn Dart, which is a kinda strange turn of affairs for a Squid, eh?
One wonders if AFFTC marked today's anniversary with some sorta celebration. I sure hope so.
Buck, I can't remember if I actually read a newspaper story about that flight (it was leaked to the press and printed all over the US) since I was only 7 at the time, or if I read about it a couple of years later. Whichever it was, I remember being blown away by the aircraft design and its super sonic capabilities. And Yeagar of course was a hero to all of us kids in the neighborhood. Those early test pilots took great risks. Hard to believe it was 65 years ago!
ReplyDeleteI was only two when Gen Yeager did the deed, but the Ol' Man made damned sure I knew ALL about it once I was old enough to read.
DeleteYeager is one of my heroes too.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both, Lou.
DeleteI was not alive when Yeager broke the sound barrier (born 1959 - died not yet, but it'd be okay if it was pretty soon). But...I grew up about 1 mile from the flight line at Barksdale Air Force Base.
ReplyDeleteAll my growing up as a kid (while we were still in Vietnam), I would hear the sonic booms. Sometimes the plates on the wall would shake...or fall off of the nails.
I remember well my Grandmother was once at the house when one of those jets let out a sonic boom. A plate fell off the wall (don't even ask about the plates on the wall), and smashed to pieces. My Grandmother looked at me with a big smile, and said, "Andy, that's the sound of FREEDOM!"
That "sound o' freedom" thang has a loooong and illustrious life, Andy.
DeleteYeager went up in an F-15D today to do the deed again at age 89. Felix went Mach 1 also, but he didn't need no stinking kerosene lamp flaming behind him :-)
ReplyDeleteCourse I guess gravity don't count really, but I hear half the planet watched him today (I did).
I missed the event, Mach. My Bad, in the extreme.
DeleteFelix/Obama - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vWOBY2G2OxA/UHvMemHNFSI/AAAAAAACCi4/xQSMEaA7TWk/s1600/FreeFall.jpg
ReplyDelete:-)
"Sound of Freedom" still gets my pulse racing
Msgt Phil
GREAT link, Phil!
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