Overcoming the sound speed required not only skill, but also personal courage - no one knew how the plane would behave in extreme conditions, what loads the pilot would experience. The first to overcome the sound barrier in level flight and return to base was an American pilot.
Chuck Yeager, a pilot from the USA, was the first to overcome supersonic speed. The record was set on 1957-14-10 on the Bell X-1 aircraft, which Bell Aircraft designed specifically for this purpose in early 1946. The aircraft was manufactured by order of the military, but had nothing to do with the conduct of hostilities. The car was literally crammed with research equipment. Outwardly, the Bell X-1 resembled a modern cruise missile.
Test Pilot Chuck Yeager
The pilot was born in 1923 on February 13th. After graduating from school, the young man immediately entered the flight school, after which he had to fight in Europe. At the very beginning of his flying career, the pilot managed to shoot down the Messerschmitt-109, but later he himself was defeated in the French sky and had to jump with a parachute.
The pilot was picked up by partisans, but counterintelligence removed him from flights. Outraged, Chuck got a reception from Eisenhower, who commanded the allied forces. He believed the young man and, as it turned out, not in vain: the gallant pilot managed to shoot down 13 more German planes by the end of the war.
Yeager returned home with an excellent track record, characteristics, awards, and the rank of captain. This contributed to the enrollment of the pilot in a special test team, who were selected at that time as carefully as astronauts are today. Chuck began to call his plane "Fascinating Glenis", in honor of his wife. The aircraft was equipped with one jet engine and was launched from a B-52 bomber.
On a winged machine, the pilot set speed records more than once: at the end of 1947 he first broke the previous altitude record (21372 m), and in 1953 he managed to accelerate the device to almost 2800 km / h, or 2.5 M (the speed of sound is measured in "swings", named after the German philosopher, engineer; 1 M is approximately equal to 1200 km / h). Yeager retired as a brigadier general in 1975, having participated in the Vietnam War and the fighting in Korea.
Soviet records
The USSR could not stay away from attempts to overcome the sound barrier; several design bureaus at once (Lavochkin, Yakovlev, Mikoyan) participated in the preparation of the aircraft, which was supposed to fly faster than sound. Such an honor fell to the plane La-176, from the "company" of Lavochkin. The car was fully prepared for flights in 1948, in December. And on the 26th, Colonel Fedorov overcame the notorious barrier, accelerating in a dive. Later, the pilot received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
