Aircraft have come on in leaps and bounds since the Wright brothers first took off and made history in the Wright flyer. However, one of the biggest and most notable accomplishments in the history of human flight is of course the breaking of the sound barrier.
This was something that many pilots had been killed or injured trying to do, and as many aircraft approached the speed of sound, the machine would break up or become damaged preventing it from doing so.
There was little known about what would happen when an aircraft (or indeed the human body) travelled faster than the speed of sound, but there were plenty of people who wanted to find out and try it.
One of the willing participants was the air force pilot Captain Chuck Yeager. No stranger to fast planes or dangerous situations, he was chosen to be the test pilot for the X1, the plane that was hoping to make history.
Of course, the aircraft itself needs to be suited to flying at such speeds, and good quality aircraft parts form aircraft part suppliers like this www.aerfin.com/beyond-fleet-services/beyond-engine/ as well as skilled pilots and engineers are all necessary for something like this to be a success.
In October of 1947, Captain Yeager made history when he flew the X1, a small plane shaped like a bullet, over the Mojave desert at a speed faster than the speed of sound, and produced the first sonic boom from an aeroplane.