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Muroc Field

After WW2, Chuck Yeager was assigned to be a test pilot at Muroc Field in California.

Muroc was high up in the California desert, a barren place except for sagebrush and Joshua Trees. The main attraction of Muroc was Rogers Dry Lake, a flat expanse that was covered with a couple inches of water in the winter, and dried out hard and flat in the spring. A natural landing field, with miles of good surface in every direction. In 1946, the whole place was off-limits, a top secret Army base, developing jet and rocket planes. And there was almost nothing there - two simple hangars, some fuel pumps, one concrete runway, and a few shacks.

Yeager in the cockpit of a P-80A at Wright Field (note his headgear, the crown of a tank corpsman’s helmet snapped onto his original leather flying cap).

In many ways, Muroc was fighter pilot Heaven in the late '40s: the run-down, Quonset-hut facilities didn't attract many visits from the Army Air Force top brass, and there wasn't much to do there but fly, and drink and drive fast cars. Pancho Barnes' "Fly Inn" was the pilots' favorite watering hole.

Breaking the Sound Barrier

One of the great unknowns of the time was the so-called "sound barrier." Planes like the British Meteor jets that approached the speed of sound (760MPH at sea level, 660 MPH at 40,000 feet) had encountered severe buffeting of the controls. At that time, no one knew for sure whether an airplane could exceed "Mach 1," the speed of sound. A British pilot, Geoffrey de Havilland, had died trying. The U.S. Army was determined to find out first.

The Army had developed a small, bullet-shaped aircraft, the Bell X-1, to challenge the sound barrier. A civilian pilot, Slick Goodlin, had taken the Bell X-1 to .7 Mach, when Yeager started to fly it. He pushed the small plane up to .8, .85, and then to .9 Mach. The date of Oct. 14, 1947 was set for the attempt to do Mach 1. Only a slight problem developed. Two nights before, after an evening at Pancho's, Chuck and Glennis went out horseback riding, Chuck was thrown, and broke two ribs on his right side. He couldn't have reported this to the Army doctors; they might have given the flight to someone else. So Yeager taped up his ribs and did his best to keep up appearances. On the day of the flight, it became apparent that, with his injured right side, he wouldn't be able to shut the door of the Bell X-1. In the plane's tiny cockpit; he could only use his (useless) right hand. He confessed his problem to Ridley, the flight engineer. In a stroke of genius, Ridley sawed off a short piece of broomstick handle; using it with his left hand, Yeager was able to get enough leverage to slam the door shut.

Yeager, standing on lift device that descended from the bomb bay of the B-29, just prior to entering the X-1’s cockpit

And that day, Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. Tom Wolfe described the conclusion of the exhilarating flight in his splendid book, The Right Stuff:

The X-1 had gone through "the sonic wall" without so much as a bump. As the speed topped out at Mach 1.05, Yeager had the sensation of shooting straight through the top of the sky. The sky turned a deep purple and all at once the stars and the moon came out - the sun shone at the same time. ... He was simply looking out into space. ... He was master of the sky. His was a king's solitude, unique and inviolate, above the dome of the world. It would take him seven minutes to glide back down and land at Muroc. He spent the time doing victory rolls and wing-over-wing aerobatics while Roger Lake and the High Sierras spun around below.

An extremely rare photo of the X-1 just after release from the B-29 Launch aircraft

After the flight, the Army clamped tight security on the whole thing, and Yeager couldn't tell anyone. He celebrated with just a few other pilots at Pancho's. He flew a dozen more transonic flights in the X-1, but still under tight wraps. His accomplishment wasn't announced to the public until mid-1948. The Bell X-1 is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum

After the establishment of the Air Force as a separate branch of the military, Muroc became Edwards Air Force Base.

Flight Test in the 1950's - The X-Planes

Because of his consummate piloting skill, his coolness under pressure and ability to detect a problem, quickly analyze it and take appropriate action, Yeager was selected to probe some of the most challenging unknowns of flight in aircraft such as the X-1A, X-3, X-4, X-5 and XF-92A.

One of the most significant events in aviation history was was the breaking of the sound barrier. The Bell X-1 piloted by Chuck Yeager is seen just after being dropped from the mothership. In the background Dick Frost flies the P-51 chase plane.

Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket

The records of the X-1 were soon exceeded by the swept-wing Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. First flown in February, 1948. Pilots such as Pete Everest, Bill Bridgeman, and Marion Carl pushed the envelope with it, achieving speeds of Mach 1.45 and 1.88. Carl took it as high as 83,000 feet. But its ultimate performance came in November, 1953, when Scott Crossfield reached Mach 2 in a shallow dive at 62,000 feet.

X-1A

Crossfield's distinction as "the fastest man alive" was short-lived. Less than a month later, Yeager piloted the rocket-powered X-1A to a record 1,650 mph (Mach 2.44) on Dec. 12, 1953. During this flight, he became the first pilot to encounter inertia coupling. The aircraft literally tumbled about all three axes as it plummeted for more than 40,000 feet before he was able to recover it to level flight. Even his rival, Scott Crossfield, has since conceded that it was "probably fortunate" that Yeager was the pilot on that flight "so we had the airplane to fly another day." Later in 1953, Kit Murray flew the X-1A up to a new record height, 90,440 feet. Only one model of the Bell X-1A existed; it was destroyed in July, 1955

X-2

As flight researchers designed aircraft that could fly at Mach 3, they encountered more problems: severe heating, instability, and worse inertial coupling. The swept-wing Bell X-2, with a 15,000 pound thrust, dual chambered rocket engine, constructed of stainless steel, was the next in the series to meet these challenges. Pete Everest made the first powered flight in the X-2 in November, 1955 and later flew it to a new speed record of Mach 2.87. In 1956 pilots Mel Apt and Iven Kincheloe (a Korean War ace) were assigned to the X-2 project. "Kinch" set a new altitude record of 126,000 feet on Sept. 7. Three weeks later Mel Apt became the first man to reach Mach 3; he encountered the same inertial coupling and tumbling as Yeager had in the X-1A, but couldn't pull out of it. Both he and the aircraft were lost.

X-3

The Douglas X-3 looked like the hottest and faster airplane ever. It still does. But looks are deceiving. Westinghouse proposed J46 turbojet engines grew too large for the X-3. To get the plane airborne, a pair of J34's were installed, but could never power the plane as intended for sustained supersonic flight test. The X-3 could only exceed Mach 1 in a steep dive. Yeager flew the X-3.

X-15

Of course, the ultimate X-plane was the X-15, a true space plane, which pilots like Bob White, Joe Engle, and Neil Armstrong took to extraordinary new records in the 1960's. Joe Walker took the X-15 to a speed of Mach 5 in 1963.

By latter-day standards, it is remarkable that, while engaged in a wide range of such highly experimental flight research programs, Yeager was also involved in the evaluation of virtually all of the aircraft that were then being considered for the Air Force's operational inventory. Indeed, he averaged more than 100 flying hours per month from 1947-1954 and, at one point, actually flew 27 different types and models of aircraft within the span of a single month.

In 1953, Yeager tested the Russian MiG-15, serial #2057, that a North Korean pilot had defected with.

Command

Through the 1950's and 60's, Yeager continued his successful career as an Air Force officer and test pilot.

In October 1954, he was assigned to command the 417th Fighter Squadron, first in Germany and then in France. Returning to the United States in September 1957, he served as commander of the 1st Fighter Squadron at George Air Force Base, Calif.

Famous photo shot by Bob Hoover from his FP-80 chase plane as Yeager and the X-1 accelerated past him on 14 October 1947

While he did not enter the astronaut program with John Glenn and the other Mercury Seven, he was appointed director of the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) at Edwards Air Force Base.

One of the planes he tested in 1963 was the NF-104, an F-104 with a rocket over the tailpipe, an airplane which theoretically could climb to over 120,000 feet. Yeager made the first three flights of the NF-104. On the fourth, he planned to exceed the magic 100,000 foot level. He cut in the rocket boosters at 60,000 feet and it roared upwards. He gets up to 104,000 feet before trouble set in. The NF-104's nose wouldn't go down. It went into a flat spin and tumbled down uncontrollably. At 21,000 feet, Yeager desperately popped the tail parachute rig, which briefly righted the attitude of the plane. But the nose promptly rose back up and the NF-104 began spinning again. It was hopeless. At 7,000 feet Yeager ejected. He got tangled up with his seat and leftover rocket fuel, which burnt him horribly. He hit the ground in great pain and his face blackened and burned, but standing upright with his chute rolled up and his helmet in his arm when the rescue helicopter arrived.

This scene was dramatically presented toward the end of the movie, The Right Stuff, and some have conflated this scene with Yeger breaking the sound barrier in the X-1.

Brig. Gen. "Chuck" Yeager pushes his F-15D fighter through the sound barrier high above Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave desert. The date is 14th. October 1997, 50 years to the day since Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, in the Bell X-1. The 'ghost' of the X-1 sits on Yeager's wing for his last military flight.

He went to Vietnam as commander of the 405th Fighter Wing in 1966 and flew 127 combat missions, and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General.

In February 1968, he took command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and in February 1968, led its deployment to Korea during the Pueblo crisis. In July 1969, he became vice commander of the 17th Air Force, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and then, in January 1971, he was assigned as U.S. defense representative to Pakistan. On June 1, 1973, he commenced his final active duty assignment as director of the AF Safety and Inspection Center at Norton Air Force Base, Calif. After a 34-year military career, he retired on March 1, 1975. At the time of his retirement, he had flown more than 10,000 hours in more than 330 different types and models of aircraft.

In 1986, Yeager was appointed to the Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger accident.

Additional Sources:

www.hq.nasa.gov
www.chuckyeager.com
www.brooksart.com
www.huntingtonquarterly.com
chucklongaviationart.com
www.edwards.af.mil
afftc.edwards.af.mil

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on August 27:
1770 Georg Wilhelm F Hegel German philosopher/inventor (dialectic)
1809 Hannibal Hamlin (R) 15th VP (1861-65)
1865 Charles Gates Dawes (R) 30th VP (1925-29, Nobel 1925)
1871 Theodore Dreiser US, novelist (Sister Carrie, American Tragedy)
1882 Samuel Goldwyn pioneer film maker/producer (MGM)
1886 Eric Coates Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England, composer
1894 Charles Meredith Knoxville Pa, actor (Court of Last Resort)
1899 C.S. Forester Engl, historical novelist, created Horatio Hornblower
1905 Frederick O'Neal Brooksville Miss, actor (Car 54 Where Are You)
1908 Frank Leahy O'Neill Nebraska, football coach (Notre Dame)
1908 Lyndon B Johnson (D) 36th Pres (1963-1969)
1908 Martha Raye [Margaret Reed], Butte Mont, actress (Martha Raye Show)
1910 Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979)
1915 Walter W Heller economist (Old Myths & New Realities)
1927 Liselott Linsenhoff German FR, equestrian (Olympic-gold-1972)
1929 Elizabeta Bagrintseve USSR, discus thrower (Olympic-silver-1952)
1929 Ira Levin author (Rosemary's Baby, Sleuth, This Perfect Day)
1932 Antonia Fraser biographer (Mary Queen of Scots)
1937 Tommy Sands singer/actor (Teenage Rock, Dream With Me)
1941 Yuri V Malyshev cosmonaut (Soyuz T-2, T-11)
1942 Daryl Dragon Pasadena Calif, keyboardist (Capt & Tennille)
1943 Susan "Tuesday" Weld NYC, actress (Dobie Gillis, Wild in Country)
1949 Barbara Bach [Goldbach], Queens NY, actress (Spy Who Loved Me)
1950 Charles Fleischer Wash DC, comedian (Roger Rabbit)
1950 Cynthia Potter US, springboard diver (Olympic-bronze-1976)
1952 Pee-wee Herman aka Paul Reubens, actor (Pee-wee's Big Adventure)
1954 John Lloyd tennis player (former husband of Chris Everet)
1955 Diana Scarwid actress (Extremities, Psycho 3, Strange Invaders, Heat)
1959 Gerhard Berger formula-1 racer (Italian Grand Prix-1988)
1961 "Downtown" Julie Brown TV host (Club MTV, Inside Edition)
1963 Patty Duffek Woodland Hills Calif, playmate (May, 1984)

Deaths which occurred on August 27:
1576 Titan Italian artist, dies
1635 Lope Felix de Vega dramatist/poet (Angelica, Arcadia), dies at 72
1840 William Kneass 3rd US chief engraver (1824-40), dies in office
1879 Sir Rowland Hill introduced postage stamps, dies at 84
1958 Dr Ernest O Lawrence inventor (Cyclotron-Nobel 1939), dies at 57
1963 W E B Du Bois scholar/founder (NAACP), dies at 95 in Accra Ghana
1964 Gracie Allen (Burns and Allen)
1967 Brian Epstein Beatles' manager, dies
1971 Bennett Cerf (Random House)/panelist (What's My Line), dies at 73
1975 Haile Selassie depossed Ethiopian emperor, dies at 83
1977 Steve Dunne actor (Professional Father), dies at 59
1978 Robert Shaw actor (Dan-Buccaneers), dies at 51
1979 Earl Mountbatten British adm of the Fleet, assassinated by IRA
1979 Nicholas Mountbatten, Lord Mountbatten's grandson, murdered at 14
1980 Sam Levenson humorist (Sam Levenson Show), dies at 68
1981 Joan Edwards singer (Joan Edwards Show), dies at 62
1984 Billy Sands actor (Phil Silvers Show, McHale's Navy), dies at 73
1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan blues guitarist, dies in a helicopter crash at 35

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 COKER GEORGE T. LINDEN NJ.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 FELLOWES JOHN H. VIRGINIA BEACH VA.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1967 BACIK VLADIMIR HENRY HOUSTON TX.
1967 BOGGS PASCHAL GLENN EAST POINT GA.
1968 PICK DONALD WILLIAM RICHLAND WA.
1970 ROGERS LYLE D.
1972 EVERETT DAVID A. BRUNSWICK GA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1972 TRIEBEL THEODORE VIENNA VA.
[03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
26 -BC- Origin of Egyptian Era
413 B.C. Eclipse of the moon causes panic on Athens fleet.
1665 "Ye Bare & Ye Cubb" is 1st play performed in N America (Acomac, Va)
1172, Marguerite, wife of Henry Plantagenet, "the Young King," crowned Queen of England
1626 The Danes are crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.
1667 Earliest recorded hurricane in US (Jamestown Virginia)
1776 British defeat Americans in Battle of Long Island
1783 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned); reaches 900 m altitude
1789 French Natl Assembly issues "Decl of the Rights of Man & the Citizen"
1793 Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.
1859 1st successful oil well drilled, near Titusville, Penn
1862 Stonewall Jackson captures and plunders Union supply depot at Manassas Junction, Virginia
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes with a force of 1,300 megatons
1894 Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a provision for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
1900 U.S. Army physician James Carroll, Havana, Cuba, allowed an infected mosquito to feed on him in an attempt to isolate the means of transmission of yellow fever. Days later, Carroll developed a severe case of yellow fever, helping his colleague, Army Walter Reed, prove that mosquitoes can transmit the sometimes deadly disease.
1896 Zanzibar loses to England in a 38 minute war (9:02 AM-9:40 AM)
1909 Jack Chesbro's final Yankee game
1911 Chic White Sox Ed Walsh no-hits Boston, 5-0
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes Tarzan
1913 Lt Peter Nestrov, of Imperial Russian Air Service, performs a loop in a monoplane at Kiev (1st aerobatic maneuver in an airplane)
1918 Dr Joseph L Johnson named minister to Liberia
1921 J E Clair of Acme Packing Co of Green Bay granted an NFL franchise
1927 Parks College, America's oldest aviation school, opens
1928 16 die in a NYC subway's 2nd worst accident
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, where 60 nations agree to outlaw war
1937 Bkln Dodger Fred Frankhouse no-hits Cin, 5-0 in 7 2/3 inn game
1937 George E.T. Eyston sets world auto speed record at 345.49 MPH
1938 Yanks Monte Pearson no-hits Indians 13-0, DiMaggio hits 3 triples
1939 Erich Warsitz makes 1st jet-propelled flight (in a Heinkel He-178)
1939 Nazi Germany demands Danzig & Polish corridor
1940 Caproni-Campini CC-2, experimental jet plane, maiden flight (Milan)
1945 US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender
1945 B-29 Superfortress bombers begin to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in China.
1950 General Foods blacklists Jean Muir of Aldrich Family as a communist
1961 Francis the Talking Mule is the mystery guest on "What's My Line"
1962 Mariner 2 launched; 1st probe to fly by Venus
1966 Francis Chichester begins the 1st solo sail around the world
1966 Race riot in Waukegan Illinois
1972 - US bombs Haiphong North Vietnam
1974 NY Met Benny Ayala hits a home run in his 1st at bat
1975 Veronica & Colin Scargill (England) complete tandem bicycle ride, a record 18,020 miles around the world
1977 Toby Harrah & Bump Wills hit back-to-back inside-the-park-homers off Yankee Ken Clay at Yankee Stadium, Rangers won 8-2
1978 Reds Joe Morgan is 1st to hit 200 HRs & have 500 stolen bases
1978 Yankee Catfish Hunter's 6-2 win gives him a perfect 6-0 in Aug 1978
1981 Divers begin to recover a safe found aboard the Andrea Doria
1982 Rickey Henderson steals 119th base of season breaks Lou Brock's mark
1982 Soyuz T-7 returns to Earth
1984 President Reagan announces the Teacher in Space project
1985 20th Space Shuttle Mission (51-I)-Discovery 6-launched
1989 100 march through Bensonhurst protesting racial killings
1990 52 Americans arrive in Turkey from Iraq
1990 WWF Summer Slam-Ultimate Warrior beats Rick Rude
1996, California Gov. Pete Wilson signed an executive order aimed at halting state benefits to illegal immigrants.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

England, Channel Is, Northern Ireland, Wales : Bank Holiday ( Monday )
Gibralter : Late Summer Bank Holiday
Hong Kong : Liberation Day (1945) ( Monday )
Be Kind to Humankind Week (Day 4)/Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday

Religious Observances
RC : Memorial of St Monica, mother of St Augustine of Hippo
Old RC : Feast of St Joseph Calasanctius, confessor

Religious History
1660 Following England's Restoration, books by poet John Milton were ordered burned because of his attacks on the monarchy. Milton had advocated an elder-ruled (presbyterian) church government over that of bishop-ruled (episcopal).
1830 English churchman John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote in a letter: 'It is our great relief that God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss, that He looks at the motives, and accepts and blesses in spite of incidental errors.'
1865 Rhenish missionary Ludwig I. Nommensen, 31, baptized four families of the Batak tribe in North Sumatra (Indonesia) the first to be converted to the Christian faith. Nommensen later established a theological training school and in 1878 completed a translation of the New Testament into the Batak language.
1876 At age 13, future English clergyman G. Campbell Morgan preached his first sermon. He later grew to become one of the most famous expository preachers and writers of late 19th century England and America.
1877 Birth of Lloyd C. Douglas, American Lutheran clergyman and religious novelist. Douglas published his first best-seller, "Magnificent Obsession," in 1929, followed later by "The Robe" (1942) and "The Big Fisherman" (1948).

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Youth isn't a time of life but a state of mind."

'You Might Be A Redneck If'...
"You've ever stolen toilet paper from a public restroom."

Murphys Law of the day...
Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

Cliff Clavin says, It's a little known fact that...
In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.