Who was the first to break the sound barrier?

I forget what his name is, but it is not Chuck Yeager. I believe that he was german and it was in the late 1930's or early 1940's. Does anyone know his name?

www.aerospaceweb.org...

He may or may not have actually broken the sound barrier. At the very least he came very close to it.

I think there has some pilot before Chuck Yeager that might have broke the sound barrier but died when his plane broke up. Besides the power problem to get up to that speed there was also a aerodynamic challenge in making the planes handle that speed.

Do not know his name but, I have heard that German pilots first broke the sound barrier in their propeller planes. They told stories that the aircraft were very unstable and they had no control over their flight controls. They would get their aircraft to high altitudes and then fly full throttle in a straight dive. I do not believe it was one individual person who did it, but a group of people who did it. I think that Chuck Yegar was the first person to break the sound barrier in a Jet with Controlled flight. Most of the German prop pilots died becasue of the inability to pull up after a high speed dive.

I do believe Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight, which was why it was so important. Diving faster than sound and being able to fly a controllable craft a horizontal distance are two very different things.

Yeah, those Germans basically were successful at hurtling themselves at the ground faster than the speed of sound. But was that actually flight? Yeager was the first to really fly doing it.

American fighter pilots also encountered similar effects while diving in P-38 Lightnings. It is possible that earlier aircraft went supersonic while diving, but it is generally accepted worldwide that Chuck Yeager was the first achieve this in level flight

Also, note that the buffeting/vibration is tell-tale sign of transonic flight, once you proceed through the sound "barrier" (which causes the highly turbulant pressure wave to move behind the tail of the aircraft) flight once again becomes stable.

This link provides more info
en.wikipedia.org...

yup... Britain sold the US the tech and cancelled their own project allowing Yeager to break the sound barrier first

It was actually an Atlantean named Thovv around 10,950 BCE.

www.flight..._info_facts.com/sound_barrier/who_did_it



[edit on 1/4/2005 by centurion1211]

Yes, but what was the day and time...

BTW-the link doesn't work.

It is common knowledge here in the UK that the sound barrier was broken back in 1939 by Spitfires and Hurricanes!

It obviously wasn't measured by the Guiness Book Of Records but they didn't have to go into a vertical dive and didn't die afterwards.

What is it with all you 'North Americans'???

The good old Brits did it first again !!!

Thats it, I can't stand by any longer!

I thought we were about denying ignorance here, not propounding fantasies?

Firstly NO propeller driven type has broken the sound barrier EVER, whether in a vertical dive or strapped on the back of a Blackbird, it has not happened.

There is a photograph in the book 'Supermarine Aircraft Since 1912' that shows a Spitfire looking extremely battered and minus its propeller after a 'near supersonic' dive that the pilot was incredibly lucky to survive, this led indirectly to the development of the E1/44 Attacker via the Spiteful (a laminar flow winged development of the Spitfire), none of which went supersonic either.

The effects of compressibility was recorded by pilots of all sides during the war, Spitfires, P-51's, Fw 190's et al came up against these effects in high speed dives, but not Hurricanes, not with that airframe, its inherent drag kept it well away from the sound barrier. As they approached the speed of sound (although they did not know it of course) the buffeting and the general effects of compressibility made the planes uncontrollable, without exception they either recovered and slowed down or crashed, nobody went supersonic. It is entirely possible that a Meteor or Me-262 went supersonic in a dive and it was not recorded due to it being wartime, in which case all the speculation remains just that, but the X-1 with Yeager in it was the first supersonic flight by a man. The first jet powered aircraft to take off under its own power and go supersonic (ie practical plane) was the DH 108 but the first official supersonic world speed record was held by an F-100 and the first speed record over 1000 mph was held by the Fairey FD.2. Now, can we stop all this rubbish about Hurricanes and P-38's please?

[edit on 6-1-2005 by waynos]

I believe that waynos has put it best, enuf said.

If any German plane did break the sound barrier in WW2 I think it would have been the Me-163 rocket powered aircraft (the X-1 was also rocket powered). It's top speed was 960 Km/h or 596 Mph. So it doesn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that it could have reached the speed of sound in a dive. It's accurate however to say that the X-1 was the first to break the sound barrier in controlled level flight and to be recorded as doing this.

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 6-1-2005 by Trent]

That possibility is supported by the fact that the aforementioned DH108 was largely based upon it by adapting the wing planform of the Me 163 to fit basic Vampire components like fuselage, engine, U/C etc.

I guess we'll never know.

Heres a picture to illustrate the similarity
external image

The me-163 left the ground a rocket powered plane, but the rockets burned out fast and it returned as a glider.
7.5 minute flight time. 12 km altitude reached in 3.3 minutes

Look this is a matter of principle, Yeager is always credited with the first through the sound barrier thing which is and always has been false. The fact is that many pilots did it before him, though not many survived like Leutnant Multke. Once again you yanks are sore about being pipped by the good old Germans who have always been streets ahead anyway being the 'master race' and all that (Well at jet building anyway they practically built the Bell X-1 for you). If you want to make up conditions and change the rules after the event then thats your lookout but dont be surprised when the rest of the world starts laughing.

Now that is pure myth. It has been proven time and again that it was impossible for any of the pilots before Yeager to ever reach the speed of sound with the way they dove the aircraft; some thought they had maybe reached it, but none did.

Yeager was the first pilot to literally FLY a plane through the sound barrier and break what had been predicted long before. Otherwise, no sonic boom had been recorded before then.

Germany built the Bell X-1?? Man I think you need to do a little more research; the Bell X-1 was an American designed and built aircraft and it was rocket-powered, not jet-powered. And believe or not, American scientists were actually working on many of the same applications in rocketry that Germany was during WWII; not everything was pionered by the Germans. They were just farther ahead is all.