On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager made aviation history by becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, but an important part of that story began in Florida.
In early 1946, Bell Aircraft’s experimental XS-1 was being tested at Pinecastle Field near Orlando. Bell chief test pilot Jack Woolams became the first person to fly the aircraft, completing 10 unpowered glide flights between January and March. The tests helped researchers understand how the unusual rocket plane handled before its engine was installed.
The program later moved to Muroc Army Airfield in California, where powered flights began. The goal was to explore the difficult transition from subsonic to supersonic flight.
On October 14, Yeager climbed into the XS-1, which he had named Glamorous Glennis after his wife. Carried aloft by a B-29 bomber, the aircraft was released over the Mojave Desert. Yeager ignited its rocket engine and reached Mach 1.06 at approximately 43,000 feet, becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
The achievement was even more remarkable because Yeager had broken two ribs in a horseback riding accident shortly before the flight. Unable to close the cockpit hatch because of the pain, he used a short piece of broom handle as a lever.
The sound barrier had been broken, but Florida had already played its part. Before the historic flight over California, the path toward supersonic flight had begun with an experimental rocket plane gliding over Central Florida.
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