Chuck Yeager
1923 – 2020
First to fly faster than sound, in the Bell X-1, 1947.
A West Virginia farm boy and WWII ace, Yeager became the first person to fly faster than sound, in the Bell X-1 on October 14, 1947 — with two ribs broken from a horse-riding fall he'd hidden from the flight surgeon.
His flight turned the compressible-flow relations from theory into a milestone. The Mach and shock tools here compute the regime he was first to cross in level flight.
Portrait: a stylized blueprint-line rendering, not a photograph.
Contributions in the toolbox
- 1947
First piloted supersonic flight — the relations flown.
→ Normal Shock Relations - 1947
Mach 1.06 flown — the ratio becomes a milestone.
→ Mach Number from Airspeed & Altitude - 1947
First level supersonic flight — Mach 1 crossed.
→ Speed Converter