Sun Oct 14,1947

On this day 65 years ago, Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager broke the sound barrier . Yeager's claim to fame was his historic flight, being the first pilot to break the sound barrier.

Yeager achieved this by flying his Bell X-1 rocket powered aircraft #46-062 at Mach 1.06 (807.2 mph)

Yeager named his aircraft after his wife Glennis, naming it "Glamorous Glennis".

In December 1953, he flew a Bell X-1A rocket powered aircraft at Mach 2.44 (1,659 mph) This records stands today for a straight winged aircraft.

The record breaking Bell X-1 rocket powered aircraft is on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington DC.

Yeager currently lives in Penn Valley CA with his wife Victoria.

I am glad that General Yeager has lived long enough to have his accomplishments widely recognized (and by multiple generations) while he is with us to enjoy that recognition. He was, of course, known in aviation and aviation buff circles, but he wasn't really well-known to the public at large until Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" came out in 1979. His book did an excellent job of giving readers a visceral "feel" for the small but intensely-experienced world of the test pilot, from which the early astronauts were selected.

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Reaction Motors, Inc which was the first American rocket engine company was located in New jersey.

I live within 10 - 30 minutes of all of their facilities.

RMI was formed by James Hard Wyld, Lovell Lawrence,Jr, John Shesta and Hugh Franklin Pierce on December 18,1941 Their location was at 280 Wanaque Ave in Pompton Lakes NJ.

The engines for the bell X-1 (XLR-11) were designed, produced, tested and shipped from their Pompton Plains Nj facility.

You can see a test firing in the May 13,1946 issue of LIFE.

RMI/RMD also did the XLR-99 X-15 motors as well. (and many others)

The test stand for the XLR-99 motor still stands today near Picatinny Arsenal in Dover NJ. Unfortunately, by early spring it will be gone. Its on the demolition list.

This was test area "E", and contained 6 million pounds of concrete and built to withstand 1 million pounds of thrust, the XLR-99 only produced 50,000 lbs of thrust.

General Yeager broke the sound barrier again yesterday in a two-seat F-15 at the age of 89 !

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Yeager is a true American original and hero. Although I have never met him, I have seen him flying a P-51 at Oshkosh sometime in the 90's.

I remember seeing him as a pitchman for a couple of products after his second-wind fame. One was AC Delco and the other was some pain medication.

Greg

He was also the pitchman for the ill-fated F-20 Tigershark that was nothing more than a re-hashed F-5E with a single F-16 engine.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

He did an interview for CNBC today that is worth watching. Look for it on that site or on youtube.

It has some Easter Eggs.

Jerry