Sound barrier

This is an article about the aviation term. For the 1952 film see The Sound Barrier (film). For the heavy metal band, see Sound Barrier.

In aerodynamics, the sound barrier is the apparent physical boundary stopping large objects from becoming supersonic. The term came into use during World War II when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a grab-bag of unrelated aerodynamic effects, and fell out of use in the 1950s when aircraft started to routinely "break" the sound barrier.

First person to break the sound barrier

Hans Guido Mutke claimed to have broken the sound barrier on April 9 1945 in a Messerschmitt Me 262. However, this claim is disputed by most experts as the Me262's stucture could not support high transonic, let alone supersonic, flight and lacks a scientific foundation.

George Welch apparently broke the sound barrier on October 1 1947 while diving the subsonic XP-86 Sabre. 13 days later and 30 minutes before Yeager's historic flight, Welch apparently repeated his supersonic flight. Although evidence from witnesses and instruments strongly imply that Welch achieved supersonic speed, the flights were not properly monitored and cannot be officially recognized. (The XP-86 officially achieved supersonic speed on April 26, 1948.)

Chuck Yeager (then a Captain in the US Air Force, later a Brigadier General who was promoted in 2005 to Major General, 30 years after his official retirement) was the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight on October 14 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane to Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet. Yeager's flight was part of a test program with the goal of achieving supersonic flight so proper monitoring was in-place for the flight.

Chuck Yeager is officially credited with being the first person to break the sound barrier "in level flight" (see the video below). This leaves the door open for claims of previous supersonic flights made while diving.

The sound barrier was first broken on land in 1948 by a rocket train in California. It was powered by 50,000 pounds of thrust, reaching 1,019 mph.

Jackie Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier on May 18, 1953 in a Canadair F-86 Sabre.

External links

a tutorial from the (or "Sonic Boom, Sound Barrier, and Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Clouds") collection of tutorials by Mark S. Cramer, Ph.D. at (Tutorials, Sound Barrier.)
"Breaking the Sound Barrier with an Aircraft" by Carl Rod Nave, Ph.D. at http://HyperPhysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu (Sound).
"^*" a video of a concorde reaching mach 1 at intersection TESGO taken from below.

Aviation

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First person to break the sound barrier

External links