Frontiers Of Flight - 09 - The Sound Barrier

[@timstorrs502]

Never saw this before. really enjoyed it. My Dad was an experimental assembler at Bell in Wheatfield. He absolutely loved working there. His hands were on the X planes as well as some of the Apollo stuff. Really cool seeing this! Thank you.

[@mikeklaene4359]

Bob Hoover was also an amazing pilot and a very down to earth guy. I spoke with him over 10 years ago at an AOPA convention in Atlantic City. He was sitting by himself in a booth selling a book about his flying adventures.

[@mountainmanws]

mike klaene Lucky guy talking with Mr. Hoover. I've seen him fly, but never met him. I spent a morning helping George Gay (Sole Survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8) unload and setup at South Bend Airport. This elderly gentlemen gets out of a station-wagon needed help. So I help setup his awning, chairs, table, and bring out cartons of books (Sole Survivor). After the job was done we introduced ourselves. I damn near dropped when he said his name. He was the reason I drove to the airshow. George gave me a book that he autographed. I remember he kept asking me if I was warm enough as it was a cold morning and I was shivering at times. I gladly put up with the cold just to talk with George. Amazing hour of my life.

[@kevingarrett8403]

Watched "The Right Stuff." That whole storyline of Yeager using a broom handle to close the hatch was actually true!

[@mrcarlwolfgang]

A lot of great material here Martin, many thanks for posting it!

[@rockyblacksmith]

Lesson to be learned: Don't gamble on being irreplacable when you're not.

[@saigokun]

Thanks for posting this.

[@BevoHoward]

Not many people know that Bob Hoover was the number one pilot for the X-1 program. It would and should have been Hoover that broke the sound barrier. It was only after he lived up to his word and did a demonstration for a fellow pilot and friend for his wedding, that history was changed.The CO got word of this Impromptu airshow and called Bob into his office. It was then he was busted back to chase pilot.

[@endwood]

+BevoHoward Bob was at the time only a Lieutenant the other guys where Capt's, the hierarchy wanted a Capt at the controls.

[@PLoWBoY618]

good stuff about the Right Stuff.....

[@crosstimbers2]

Very ironic that Slick Goodlin was so focused on making a buck that he NEVER ever flew Mach 1 or faster.

[@johnthompson6550]

Wow, Gary Tarr is right, the Brits were on the right path, but again they ended up short sheeted. Everyone really knows we owe it all to the Germans!

[@crosstimbers2]

bullshit , the Brits will claim if you turn hell upside down it will say invented in the UK on the bottom

[@lookoutforchris]

John Thompson the Brits claim to have invented everything ... still sour about losing their empire maybe. The Nazis made some amazing technology, but so did others. The Brits made early and fundamental contributions to the design of the jet engine, independent of the Germans. So they're not always wrong when they moan on, just most of the time.

[@janus2059]

Interesting they dropped Yeager at 45,000' instead of the earlier flights that dropped at 20-25,000'. Also it seems to me that 45,000' is quite high for a B-29...

[@lpr5269]

Anybody know the voice of the narrator? I know his name but I was curious if anybody else did. I'll give you a hint. He was on the show Lou Grant.

[@MartinPereira-qn2mt]

i googled it so it doesnt count..... so ill leave it open

[@lpr5269]

Alright no one is going to get this one except you Martin. It's Mason Adams. He was in Lou Grant and in that movie F/X with Bryan Brown.

[@jrcadet4]

The narrator for this series was Mason Adams.

[@daz1387]

The British Miles brothers had the sound barrier cracked before any Americans, who only achieved it because of them

[@lookoutforchris]

daz b pure propaganda. Sad to see this sort of thing come out of the U.K. The Miles M.52 design was never completed, and no prototype was ever built, only scale models. Is that what Brits call "cracking the sound barrier"? Some information was shared between the countries but it came well after the X-1 was already flying... you put yourself in the company of countries like Russia and China when you promote revisionist histories and conspiracy theories which deny facts and realities.

[@peglegnoid6139]

felix baungartner

[@oilsmokejones3452]

Interesting, to this day it's called JATO, jet assisted take off..and still to this day it is rocket assist not jet assist...

[@oilsmokejones3452]

***** No it isn't.

[@oilsmokejones3452]

www.dictionary.com/browse/rocket-engine and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine . The latter even explains the difference for you. You're welcome. *****

[@oilsmokejones3452]

***** Here is the kiddy version for you. I'm sorry I can't find anything simpler than this.. howthingsfly.si.edu/ask-an-explainer/what%E2%80%99s-difference-between-jet-engine-and-rocket-engine so ask yourself does a JATO unit have one or two openings. For anyone else reading this here is print way too small for Ash Cooper but goes into far more detail www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/rocket.html And although I am tempted to respond with name calling like Ash here is clear long hand explanation of the difference.. jet engine works like this: It sucks in air from the front of the engine. This air is burned with the fuel within the engine. The resulting large mass of gas is ejected towards the rear at high velocity, which both propels the airplane forward, and gets more air sucked into the engine. A rocket, in contrast, carries both fuel (which may be solid or liquid) and oxygen. Therefore it does not suck in air from the front. All it does is burn the fuel with the oxygen, and eject it at very high velocities backward. This momentum is used to both lift and propel the rocket. . So a JATO unit is a rocket not a jet but the troll wins because I am getting carpel tunnel..

[@oilsmokejones3452]

***** There is obviously no limit to your stupidity. The entire premise of my comment is that JATO is a misnomer and I have clearly demonstrated that repeatedly. So what in your problem now? I'm thinking you don't have a clue how JATO works and I have wasted all this time and ink. And BTW the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had nothing do to with design, development, building, implementing, or naming JATO, nor do they now. JATO came into being long before JPL.

[@oilsmokejones3452]

Yes, yes and then the article goes on to explain the difference between a jet engine and a rocket. The only reason rocket is mentioned. ***** A jet engine is an air pump a rocket is not. Maybe this is simplistic enough for you: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JATO

[@daz1387]

Could have and should have been a British achievement.. The yanks were given the blueprints for the miles m52 .. Effectively that's what the X1 is ... A British design that was stupidly ordered to be scrapped ...

[@lookoutforchris]

daz b completely untrue. The X-1 was in the air flying before the U.K. Shared any research and the design of the M.52 was never even finished. Sour grapes... really makes the Brits look bad when you see stuff like this. Seems like you lot moan a lot about your lost greatness and you come up with a lot of nonsense about how you've been robbed and deserve this and that which you did not work for. Should change the name of the country to Little Britain.

[@superancientmariner1394]

lookoutforchris. " The X-1 was in the air flying before the U.K. Shared any research and the design of the M.52 was never even finished. Sour grapes."..........Afraid not old son. In 1944, design work was considered 90 per cent complete having been started in 1942, and Miles was told to proceed with the construction of a total of three prototype M.52s. Later that year, the Air Ministry signed an agreement with the United States to exchange high-speed research and data. The Bell Aircraft company was given access to the drawings and research on the M.52; however, the U.S. reneged on the agreement and no data was forthcoming in return....That was 1944 , and the X-1 didn't fly until 1946 And it is all documented and on record. Bell were having problems with stabilty when the X1 DID fly, and got the Variable tail form the Miles data. An all-flying tail is considered to be a minimum condition of enabling aircraft to break the transonic barrier safely without a loss of pilot control. The M.52 was the first instance of this solution, ....again all on record, because the 1/3rd models that Miles had flown had it. So don't be so dismissive about the work done.

[@daz1387]

SuperAncientmariner ...Exactly right and very eloquently put.. Ends the argument

[@daz1387]

lookoutforchris ..I suggest you read SuperAncientmariner's post below, and then go and cut yourself a nice big slice of humble pie...