Who invented sound barrier

During his four-minute second freefall, Baumgartner reached speeds of miles per hour—Mach 1. Those old enough to remember might reminisce about Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot who first broke the sound barrier in an experimental Bell X-1 jet in Those a bit younger may remember seeing Yeager's feats chronicled in the movie "The Right Stuff" based on Tom Wolfe's book , about the Mercury 7 astronauts in the early days of manned space flight.

Interestingly, Baumgartner's jump, which was delayed twice, was evenutally performed on October 14th, 65 years to the day after Yeager broke the sound barrier over the Mojave Desert. In a nod to a new era of technology, whereas Yeager's accomplishment was witnessed by only a few, Baumgartner's feat was viewed in real time by millions via YouTube and other live streaming services.

While there are claims that the sound barrier was first broken during World War II in the Messerschmitt Me , such claims are considered unofficial. After Yaeger's plane, which he named "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife, was dropped from the bay of a B bomber, Yaeger achieved Mach 1.

The speed of sound is named for Ernst Mach — , an Austrian physicist who studied supersonic motion, primarily in the form of ballistic shock waves. He realized that when a bullet or shell moved faster than the speed of sound, the air in front of it was compressed, causing crater-type wounds as well as a second distinct "boom" that was separate from the explosion.

Mach was able to photograph the shock waves using schlieren photography invented by German physicist August Toepler in , which captured the shadows of the waves. These words were prophetic, for the shadow of the sonic boom of the Miles design was undoubtedly heard over the Californian desert on 14 October How so? Crucially they had not achieved the breakthrough with the all-moving tailplane.

But by the time Yeager climbed into the cockpit on 14 October — after Bell's engineers had met with the Miles design team — they had. Most of the theories concerning how much the Bell X-1 drew on the insights of the M. According to Rod Kirkby, Bell Aircraft decided to increase the power of the tailplane trimmer after talks with the Miles design team, on the off-chance it might be required. In test flights close to Mach 1 in the X-1 Yeager had found the aircraft's pitch almost impossible to control.

Fitting an electric switch that controlled the tailplane incidence — Kirkby calls the addition a 'field fix' — solved the problem. Grandma could be sitting up there sipping lemonade. One important design aspect they both had in common — those straight wings — points to another possible reason for the cancellation of the Miles project, aside from the parlous state of the public finances confronting the post-war Labour government.

Furthermore, [Chuck Yeager's successful] Bell X-1 did not have sweptback wings. The drag coefficient of a straight wing actually falls when passing Mach 1; for higher speeds, thin straight wings are best.

Chuck Yeager, pictured next to the Bell X Many believe the sound-barrier breaking X-1 design incorporated elements of the tail design of the Miles M. Yeager died in , aged The creator of the Mosquito , the aviation giant de Havilland, was asked to look into sweepback designs in October , leading to the creation of the DH This was similar to the tailless swept-wing rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me , used by the Luftwaffe as an interceptor during the latter stages of the war.

According to Rod Kirkby, the plane had an infamy for introducing the term 'graveyard dive' into the vernacular of the pilots of the time — given their hopelessness of recovery when the plane found itself in a steep dive.

The first tail-less DH prototype — nicknamed the Swallow — took to the skies in May piloted by Geoffrey de Havilland Junior, the test-pilot son of the company owner. Over the months that followed modifications were made and the second prototype was launched in July that year for high speed testing. On 27 September, de Havilland died while trying to break the then speed record of mph in flights over the Thames Estuary: the aircraft broke up mid-flight at around Mach 0.

The wreckage was discovered on mud-flats near Egypt Bay, north east of Gravesend on the Kent coast. The first of the boundary-breaking De Havilland DH aircraft, a low-speed prototype. Further work on the design would yield the first British piloted aircraft to break the sound barrier — and high-speed crashes in the aircraft would kill the founder of the company's son, Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr.

John Derry was to die at the controls of a later iteration of the aircraft, the DH, in Meanwhile, staff at the Royal Aircraft Establishment had continued to work on the Vickers-built model of the original M.

After losing the second model the A. The rocket burned for about a minute, the maximum speed attained being a Mach 1. The M. Yeager managed to pull out safely at 25, feet — after falling more than 50, feet. Ten years later, Yeager piloted a Lockheed NF aircraft that crashed, but he managed to parachute out safely. Times reported at the time. The crash was depicted in both the book and movie versions of "The Right Stuff.

Yeager's last active duty flight was on Feb. He made a cameo appearance in the movie "The Right Stuff," which chronicles the careers of Yeager portrayed by Sam Shepard and the early test pilots against the next generation of pilots that flew in the Mercury space program in the s.

The marriage led to a property dispute with some of Yeager's four children, who alleged D'Angelo more than 40 years Yeager's junior had married the pilot because of his fortune.

In , the California Court of Appeal ruled in Yeager's favor. Yeager has since been involved in other unrelated litigation, such as a dispute with a Utah company concerning how they use his likeness, and a conflict with a past lawyer concerning legal fees. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space. Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space.

She is the author or co-author of several books on space exploration. Elizabeth holds a Ph.