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
American originals don't come more original than Chuck Yeager.
Even for those whose parents weren't born when he was rewriting the aviation record books, the name rings a bell. Wasn't he the guy who first smashed the sound barrier – something to do with Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff?
He was...
1959 AFFTC Briefing. The Cold War accelerated the development of U.S. military aircraft technologies at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. This remarkable motion picture briefing from 1959 highlights wide ranging flight tests at this famous test base.
On October 14, 1947, US Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 experimental plane at Mach 1 some 40,000 feet over the Mojave Desert, becoming the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound.
The journey to that flight started in...
Since its inception in 1947, the Air Force has consistently broken barriers as an element of the finest joint warfighting team on the planet, and its Airmen have refined its mission through innovation and teamwork.
This video is one of 10 videos for the Air Force's 70th Anniversary. The theme...
On Oct. 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager flew his Bell X-1 jet into the history books by becoming the first pilot to break the sound barrier. A stamp honoring his feat was issued 50 years later.
“Few moments in American history can match the day that the experimental aircraft Bell X-1,...
On October 14, 1947, US Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 experimental plane at Mach 1 some 40,000 feet over the Mojave Desert, becoming the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound.
The journey to that flight started in late 1943, at a conference...
The $247.5 million aircraft could revive supersonic flight for civilians
NASA has announced plans to design and build an aircraft that can fly faster than the speed of sound with quiet, supersonic technology. The experimental plane, or X-plane, is called the Low-Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) and will be designed to reduce the...
The last member of the original Tuskegee Airmen, Willie Rogers of St. Petersburg, Florida, died Monday. He was 101 years old.
The last member of the original Tuskegee Airmen, Willie Rogers of St. Petersburg, Florida, died Monday. He was 101 years old. The Airmen were members of the first African-American...
On October 14, 1947, a test pilot with the right stuff changed the future of aviation forever.
The joke was on me.
It was just after sunup on the morning of Oct. 14, 1947, and as I walked into the hangar at Muroc Army Air Base in the California high desert,...