If someone would’ve told us a long time
ago that humans could travel faster than the speed of sound, we’d nod our heads in disbelief
and laugh. I mean, think about it. Breaking the sound barrier was as mind-boggling
as superman’s ability to defy gravity. But what if I told you that a man achieved
this impossible feat more than 70 years ago? So, who is this guy? How did he manage to travel faster than the
speed of sound? Let’s take a short flight to the past and
find out. Future legend, Charles “Chuck” Yeager,
was born in 1923. It was a time when Jazz was flourishing, and
a decade of prosperity was starting in America. Chuck grew up in a small town in West Virginia
called Hamlin, and he was the second born son of Susie and Albert Yeager. He had a very peaceful upbringing, and he
sure enjoyed being active and curious. When he wasn’t playing out in the woods,
he’d spend his time next to his grandpa, learning how to fish and hunt. Chuck was also a good student, but school
wasn’t his cup of tea. He preferred to be outside. But he excelled in a few things that would
serve him well in his career. He was good at math, physical activity and
manual dexterity. His dad owned a natural gas drilling business
in Hamlin. There, Chuck developed a passion for generators,
pumps and pressure regulators. He wanted to learn everything about them,
and he achieved it. During his teenage years, he was able to fix
generators, troubleshoot complicated systems, and even repair the pickup trucks that his
dad used. In 1941, Chuck graduated from school; and
in September of that year he enrolled in the Army Air Corps, a choice that would change
his life forever. By July of 1942, he was picked to become an
air force pilot, and his flight training had begun. His discipline stood out, and that gained
him a lot of recognition from his peers. He had the whole flying package, and when
his training started; he took off…literally and figuratively speaking. His eyesight was 20/10 which was remarkable. He was great with coordination, and he could
carry out almost any task without any difficulty. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also able
to stay calm, and focus on his work in stressful situations – which is a must for pilots. All of these positive traits, alongside his
competitive nature and his background in machinery, attracted the attention of his instructors. In March of 1943, he finally got his wings
to fly away. Within a year he’d managed to fly more than
270 hours around Europe. There, his experience would prove invaluable
for his career. In just a few years he’d be able to travel
faster than the speed of sound. And, that wasn’t an easy task either. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let’s take a deep dive into physics
and see what the sound barrier is. Scientifically speaking, the sound barrier
is a sudden rise in aerodynamic force that happens when an aircraft approaches the speed
of sound. – Um, what? Let me simplify it for you. Imagine yourself sitting in your room watching
YouTube…I mean studying. Now, the air all around you is made up of
molecules. When you move through the air, all those molecules
rush to get out of your way. Now imagine you’re flying an aircraft at
supersonic speeds. When those air molecules can’t get out of
your way fast enough, they compress in front of your plane. That compressibility surrounds the problem
of breaking the sound barrier. The compressibility of molecules had been
an issue for physicists before airplanes even existed. However, the molecule compressibility was
always linked to the speed of sound, and that’s what scientists were studying. They were looking at projectiles that’d
achieved surpassing the speed of sound. When physicists were able to capture their
first photo of one traveling at super-sonic speeds, they were able to see shock-waves,
both at the front and at the back of the projectile. That was the first time they could physically
see the compressibility of those molecules. While the world of aviation was taking off,
engineers were trying to figure out a way to build airplanes that could approach the
speed of sound without breaking into pieces. This happened because the tips of the propeller
blades were travelling faster than the speed of sound, while the aircraft didn’t. When those blades were moving at supersonic
speeds, they were also meeting resistance from the compressed air molecules. So, engineers had to come up with something
that would allow aircraft to fly higher and faster. The problem got even more noticeable when
jets entered the market, and replaced propeller planes in the 1940s. They saw that as the jets were flying faster,
the air over the wings reached supersonic speeds before the air traveling below the
wings. That meant that the shockwaves building up
could rip the plane into pieces. Now, the speed of sound is Mach 1, which is
equivalent to 761 miles per hour. But even at Mach 0.8 (613 mph), the shockwaves
that were building up were still dangerous for the aircraft. So, scientists, manufactures, and engineers
alike, put their thinking caps on, and started designing a new airplane that could travel
faster than the speed of sound without falling apart. And that was when the X-1 came to life. And let me tell you, a lot of thought went
into it. It was built in 1945 by Bell Aircraft, and
was designed to use aerodynamics to help it move through the air without any disruptions,
while still pushing it forward. Scientists believed that since a projectile
can reach the sound barrier, designing something that replicated it would be their best chance
at success. The plane had short wings; it was equipped
with a rocket engine, and most of its body was filled up with fuel. That was a sure-fire way to make it reach
supersonic speeds. .
The X-1 had only one mission – to break the sound barrier. So, it had to retain all its fuel in order
to make the speed and travel faster than sound. It was designed to be launched from below
a B-29 Bomber. That big airplane would be responsible for
carrying the X-1 to the altitude it needed. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In 1945, the X-1 prototype performed its first
gliding trip without using any power. It didn’t have an engine, so it was just
released from the mothership while attached to it by a string. Many tests followed to confirm the design
and functionality. And towards the end of 1946, another X-1 was
built. This one had all the right ingredients – the
rocket engine and the fuel. The only thing missing was the right pilot. The man for the job was Chalmers Goodlin,
an excellent pilot who worked for the Canadian Airforce, and performed many test flights
of the X-1. But just as they were about to seal the deal
on the sound barrier flight, Chalmers insisted on 150,000 bucks to make the trip. On top of that, he also asked to get paid
every minute that the aircraft spent travelling above Mach 0.85. Of course, the Bell Aircraft Corporation declined,
and Goodlin lost his chance to fly the X-1 into history. But, the company didn’t lose hope since
there were 8 more people lined up for the job. Among them was our buddy Chuck Yeager. He was the least experienced at the time,
but his reputation preceded him. His knowledge and confidence on how to work
everything in the cockpit made him known to everyone at the Muroc Army Airfield in the
California Desert, today known as Edwards Airforce Base. And, he was given the chance to fly the X-1. The day had finally come. It was on October 14th, 1947, right after
10:30 in the morning. Yeager courageously boarded the aircraft,
and the mothership took off. At 20,000 feet the X-1 was released from the
B-29. Just then, Yeager pointed the aircraft’s
nose downward and lit all 4 barrels of the rocket engine. When he hit Mach 0.8, he started to climb. That was when he shut down two of the rocket
barrels to see if the aircraft was still accelerating above Mach 0.8. When he reached 42,000 feet, Chuck re-lit
the two rocket barrels that he had just shut down, and there it was. The aircraft continued accelerating and the
Mach meter was moving from 0.8, to 0.9, to 1.02 and finally reaching 1.06. Chuck had achieved the impossible. He had broken the sound barrier, and travelled
faster than the speed of sound. Granted, he had his ups and downs during his
training. He had a few near misses when he was testing
the aircraft, but in the end he succeeded. In December
of 1953, he reached Mach 2.44, which is 1650 miles per hour; but then the unexpected happened. Yeager lost control of the plane. Chuck managed to re-gain control of the aircraft
at 29,000 feet. In 2012, at 89 years old, 65 years after breaking
the Sound Barrier, Chuck Yeager did it again. He flew a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and
he hit 1.3 Mach, like a true aviation champion. So, would you like to experience traveling
faster than the speed of sound? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something from this video,
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