Editing Bell X-1 (section)

===Mach 1 flight===
[[File:Chuck Yeager.jpg|thumb|left|[[Chuck Yeager]] in front of the X-1 that he nicknamed the ''Glamorous Glennis''.]]
The first manned [[supersonic]] flight occurred on 14 October 1947, over the [[Mojave Desert]] in [[California]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/X-1-airplane|title=Bell X-1|publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=English|accessdate=8 December 2022}}</ref> less than a month after the [[U.S. Air Force]] had been created as a separate service. [[Captain (United States O-3)|Captain]] [[Chuck Yeager|Charles "Chuck" Yeager]] piloted USAF aircraft #46-062, nicknamed ''Glamorous Glennis'' for his wife. The airplane was [[drop launch]]ed from the bomb bay of a B-29 and reached Mach 1.06 ({{convert|700|mph|km/h kn}}).<ref name=NTRS>{{cite book |last=Hallion |first=Richard P. |year=2012 |editor-last=Dick |editor-first=Steven J. |title=NASA 50th Anniversary Proceedings : NASA's First 50 Years, Historical Perspectives |url=https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/607087main_NASAsFirst50YearsHistoricalPerspectives-ebook.pdf |publisher=US National Aeronautics and Space Admin |pages=223–274 |chapter=Chapter 10: The NACA, NASA, and the Supersonic-Hypersonic Frontier |isbn=978-0-16-084965-7}}</ref> Following burnout of the engine, the plane glided to a landing on the dry lake bed.<ref name="yeagerbio_86" />{{rp|129–130}} This was XS-1 flight number 50.
[[File:Yeager supersonic flight 1947.ogv|thumb|Yeager exceeded [[Speed of sound|Mach 1]] on 14 October 1947 in the X-1.]]
The three main participants in the X-1 program won the [[National Aeronautics Association]] [[Collier Trophy]] in 1948 for their efforts. Honored at the [[White House]] by [[Harry S. Truman|President Truman]] were [[Lawrence Dale Bell|Larry Bell]] for Bell Aircraft, Captain Yeager for piloting the flights, and [[John Stack (engineer)|John Stack]] for the contributions of the NACA.

The story of Yeager's 14 October flight was leaked to a reporter from the magazine [[Aviation Week and Space Technology|''Aviation Week'']], and the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' featured the story as headline news in their 22 December issue. The magazine story was released on 20 December. The Air Force threatened legal action against the journalists who revealed the story, but none ever occurred.<ref>Powers, Sheryll Goeccke. "Women in Flight Research at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center from 1946 to 1995," ''Monographs in Aerospace History,'' Number 6, 1997, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D. C.</ref> The news of a straight-wing supersonic aircraft surprised many American experts, who like their German counterparts during the war believed that a swept-wing design was necessary to break the sound barrier.{{r|ley194811}} On 10 June 1948, [[United States Secretary of the Air Force|Air Force Secretary]] [[Stuart Symington]] announced that the sound barrier had been repeatedly broken by two experimental airplanes.<ref name=mjfmftsd>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UuFQAAAAIBAJ&pg=4694%2C4552556 |newspaper=Milwaukee Journal |title=Flights 'much faster than sound' confirmed by the U.S. Air Force |date=June 10, 1948 |page=1, part 1}}</ref><ref name=ppgfsnd>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AAwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2734%2C2355693 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |agency=Associated Press |title=Two U.S. planes fly faster than sound |date=June 11, 1948 |page=4}}</ref>

On 5 January 1949, Yeager used Aircraft #46-062 to perform the only conventional (runway) launch of the X-1 program, attaining {{convert|23000|ft|m|abbr=on}} in 90 seconds.<ref name="Miller pp. 21–35">Miller 2001, pp. 21–35.</ref>