On May 18, 1953, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound and, at the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other male or female pilot in aviation history. Included in...
This Article originally appeared in Boys Life in June 1947, 4 months before the actual breaking of the sound barrier. Little did they know it was only months away when this was published! Click on the article pages to read full size.
Chuck Yeager in 1948. The previous year, he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier when he reached a speed of 700 miles per hour in a Bell Aircraft X-1.Credit...Associated Press
26 Mar 1951 at Edwards Air Force Base - Filming began on the lakebed for RKO’s film Jet Pilot, starring John Wayne and Janet Leigh. As shown in this photo, an XF-92A was painted to simulate a “MiG-23.” Most of aerial stunt scenes were anonymously flown by Chuck Yeager. (Edwards History Office file photo)
26 Mar 1951 at Edwards Air Force Base - Filming began on the lakebed for RKO’s film Jet Pilot, starring John Wayne and Janet Leigh. As shown in this photo, an XF-92A was painted to simulate a “MiG-23.” Most of aerial stunt scenes were anonymously flown by Chuck Yeager....
  Chuck Yeager Courtesy U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission www.centennialofflight.gov Reproduced by Permission. For many people, Chuck Yeager is a true hero in the strictest definition of the word. Throughout his career, Yeager displayed distinguished courage and performed several extraordinarily brave deeds, although he only considered such acts as following his duty. Many people...
13 December 2016 • 1:27am A veteran pilot who helped to sink the Bismarck during the Second World War has died at the age of 97. Lt Cdr John "Jock" Moffat was credited with launching the torpedo that crippled the German warship in 1941. The death of the Scottish veteran...
The F-20 Tigershark program was abandoned in 1986 after three prototypes had been built (two of which crashed after their pilots blacked out due to excessive g-forces) and a fourth partially completed. The F-20 Tigershark (initially F-5G) was a privately...
Aerospace engineers went from the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903 to supersonic flight in just 43 years, thanks to two world wars and the accompanying advances in metallurgy, motors, and controls. During the subsequent 60 years, more than 120 different planes have flown faster than the speed of...
Captain Charles Yeager, center, of Hamlin, W.Va., the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, receives the Gold Medal of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale at ceremonies, Sept. 6, 1949, Cleveland, Ohio. Right is William R. Enyart who made the presentation and with Yeager...
While NASA has had a long and storied history of building and testing experimental aircraft – called X-planes -- it has been almost a decade the space agency has developed any new aircraft. an initiative announced earlier this year as part of the new budget has NASA back designing, building...