Photograph of the XS-1 in Flight
On October 14, 1947, Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager became the first human to break the sound barrier during powered level flight while flying the experimental Bell X-1 aircraft.
File Unit: X-1 Photographs, 12/11/1946 - 10/21/1947. Series: Flight Test Project Files, ca. 1945 - ca. 1959. Record Group 255: Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1903 - 2006 .
Photograph of Captain Charles E. Yeager, 5/1948
Read Chuck Yeager’s notes from the moment that he broke the sound barrier:
“The needle of the machmeter fluctuated at this reading momentarily, then passed off the scale. Assuming that the off scale reading remained linear, it is estimated that 1.05 Mach i was attained at this time.”
Pilot's Notes from the Ninth Powered Flight of the XS-1 (First supersonic flight)
Read more Pilot’s notes from these test flights in the X-1 Correspondence file in the National Archives catalog.
