ON THIS DAY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY
October 14, 1947
Chuck Yeager is Credited With Being the First to Pilot
an Aircraft in Controlled Level Supersonic Flight
On this day in 1947, Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager flew the rocket-powered Bell X-1 aircraft faster
than the speed of sound (supersonic) in controlled level flight.
The aircraft was recorded at Mach 1.06 (807.2 mph) peak speed. Although this was the first flight recorded in
supersonic flight, Yeager and others believe they had reached that important milestone in a previous flight.
Although the previous flight was only recorded at Mach .997, the measurements were not accurate enough to confirm
or refute the claim.
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