Worth Remembering Today in 1947

A West Virginia boy done good. Thank you Mr. Yeager for your service to this great nation.

A fitting tribute to one of the seminal events in aviation history. What more appropirate way coud there have been for the US Air Force to announce its "birth" as an independent branch of military service to the world less than one month earlier, on September 18, 1947? Then-Captain Yeager's Bell X-1 was named "Glamorous Glennis," in honor of his wife. The X-1's fuselage was shaped like a 0.50-caliber machine-gun bullet, since this type of projectile flew at supersonic speeds. Note the X-1's straight wings, heretofore an obstacle to high-speed flight. At high airspeeds, shock waves would build up on straight wings and compressibility would set in, but features such as swept wings, more powerful jet engines, and "area rule" aerodynamics would eventually make supersonic aircraft commonplace. Worth remembering, also, is that no aircraft can fly without the support of a dedicated support team, the engineers who designed it, and the workers who built it. The X-1 had to be carried to launch altitude by a modified B-29 Superfortress bomber and was launched (dropped, actually) in mid-air. The pioneering spirit of the X-1 lives on today. The X-series aircraft would go on to explore all kinds of extremes in aviation - variable-geometry wings (X-5), flight to the edge of space (X-15), lifting-body designs later adapted for the Space Shuttle (X-24), forward-swept wings (X-29), and now hypersonic flight (X-43). The X-1 and Captain Yeager paved the way for all that would follow. A worthy anniversary indeed. Good article.

Brian, I am glad you mentioned "The Right Stuff".........was one of my favorite movies, also. I will make a point of seeing it again soon........They don't make many men like Chuck Yeager anymore..........I wonder what he may have accomplished had he been allowed to be an astronaut.........My former husband was a naval aviator..............and I appreciate my years "in the Navy"............I saw the POW's land at Alameda Naval Air Station when they returned from Vietnam...........I hope we can have a man of that courage for our next president.........Nancy

Brian- Did not know you were an aviation geek like some of us out here. Keep up the good work and great reporting the past couple of weeks. You kids at Fox Biz must be going bananas on no sleep. -Paul

Amazing feat - and the same year as the famous "Roswell Incident" ( UFOs)in New Mexico, and also two weeks before I was born....I met Chuck Yeager in the early 1990`s - he was a friend of my Dad ( who was a WW2 USAF B29 Captain)and member of IOC "International Order of Characters" - a charitable organization of WW2 aviators. At that 1992-3 IOC annual meeting in California, we all (including Jerry Gentry, another famous test pilot and 25 others) made paper airplanes and flew them from the top floor of the atrium of the Embassy Suites Hotel in Los Angeles - amid challenges, cocktails and stories. My paper plane flew the best, and I was declared the winner ....true story. Dave Young, Nashville, TN

Thanks Brian and to all those aviation hero's, History is all we have left showing grateful appreciation and acknowledgement of success. Three cheers for "The Right Stuff! !!!

I would mention that Mr. Bob Hoover was flying the chase plane that day. Mr. Hoover is a fine gentlemen and the standard by which stick and rudder men are measured.

I've always been a fan of Gen. Yeager's and really enjoyed that cameo he did in "The Right Stuff". When he turned 80 years old he took up an F 15 and went Mach 2.....similar to Pres.Bush (41) skydiving at the same age...great guys. The military is STILL turning out great guys.... Now we just have to elect another great guy as president....