The First Flight Faster Than Sound Was on October 14, 1947

The sound barrier was first broken in 1947, by an aircraft that carried a personal name. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which holds the airplane, records that on October 14, 1947, the Bell X-1 became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound. It was piloted by US Air Force Capt. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager. According to the museum, the X-1 reached a speed of 1,127 kilometers, or 700 miles, per hour, which is Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 13,000 meters, or 43,000 feet. It did not take off from a runway. The X-1 was air-launched at 7,000 meters from the bomb bay of a Boeing B-29. Yeager named the airplane Glamorous Glennis in tribute to his wife.