BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) – 70 years ago this week a Buffalo-built rocket plane flew into the history books when Gen. Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the speed of sound.
The Bell X-1 was designed and built at the company’s Wheatfield plant, with some of the work done in secret at Buffalo’s old Trico building on Main Street.
Yeager made the historic flight over Edwards Air Force Base in California on November 14th 1947. He has fond memories of Buffalo and Larry Bell as Bell employees had a hand in making history.
Watch Keith Radford’s original report from the 1980’s on the X-1 flight and the great aviation history in Western New York.
