Oct 14, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 28 segments
Thank you so much for listening to the Bob Harden Show, celebrating over 15 years broadcasting on the internet. On Wednesday’s show, we visit with Cato Institute Chairman Emeritus Bob Levy about the…
Charles GoyetteGuestMichael O'NeillGuestBob LevyGuestLarry BellGuestIt is October the 14th, and on this day in 1947, US Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
He was born in V- West Virginia in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II, and flew 64 missions over Europe.
He shot down 13 German airplanes, and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French underground.
After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane built by Bell Aircraft accompany [clears throat] to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.
For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transso- sonic drag r- would, uh, tear the aircraft apart.
[clears throat] After that, all that changed on October the 14th, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California.
The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, uh, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles an hour, the sound barrier at that altitude.
The rocket plane, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis, uh, after Yeager's wife, was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50 caliber bullet.
Reports of the flight leaked to the press December 1947, but because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager's achievements were not officially confirmed until June 1948.
Yeager concerned- continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953, f- through, uh, flew 106-- 1,650 miles per hour.
It is October the 14th, and on this day in 1947, US Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
He was born in V- West Virginia in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II, and flew 64 missions over Europe.
He shot down 13 German airplanes, and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French underground.
After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane built by Bell Aircraft accompany [clears throat] to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.
For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transso- sonic drag r- would, uh, tear the aircraft apart.
[clears throat] After that, all that changed on October the 14th, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California.
The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, uh, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles an hour, the sound barrier at that altitude.
The rocket plane, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis, uh, after Yeager's wife, was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50 caliber bullet.
Reports of the flight leaked to the press December 1947, but because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager's achievements were not officially confirmed until June 1948.
Yeager concerned- continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953, f- through, uh, flew 106-- 1,650 miles per hour.
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