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THIS MORNING AROUND 7 AM, THE ENGINES OF A MASSIVE, BELUGA-BODIED HELICOPTER CUT ON WITH A RUMBLE. The hum harmonized with the reverberations of Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles. As the Chinook’s two enormous rotor blades started to spin, blasting hot vapor smudged the monochrome stripes of pavement, desert floor, mountain ridge, and…

by Bryan Alexander / USA Today Before Tom Cruise soared into the danger zone with Top Gun, Sam Shepard, who died Thursday, brought a true American pilot hero to the screen in immortal style. Shepard’s breakout Oscar-nominated performance as pioneering test pilot Chuck Yeager was the soul of writer/director Philip Kaufman’s 1984 classic The Right Stuff. The actor…

THE SPACE AGENCY IS CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF AIRCRAFT TESTING BY RELEASING A TROVE OF OLD VIDEOS SHOWING X-PLANES, LUNAR LANDERS, AND VARIOUS SPACE SHUTTLES. Aviation geeks rejoice: There’s a whole new way to waste time. NASA is marking 70 years of advanced aircraft testing by releasing a trove of old video from its Dryden…

From the Bell X-1 to the Nord Gerfaut, here are the first 10 aircraft to break the sound barrier. Aerospace engineers went from the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903 to supersonic flight in just 43 years, thanks to two world wars and the accompanying advances in metallurgy, motors, and controls. During the subsequent 60…

Charleston’s Yeager Airport and the West Virginia Air Guard will celebrate their 70th anniversary with an air show Sept. 30-Oct. 1, featuring flying demonstrations, aircraft displays and tours, and rides aboard World War II-era aircraft. Known as Kanawha Airport when it opened in 1947, after three years of earth-moving work, the hilltop airport’s name was…

When Chuck Yeager proved humans could fly faster than the speed of sound, he emphasized his point by generating a boom so loud over the Mojave Desert that no one on the ground that October day in 1947 could doubt his achievement. But with other achievements, Yeager is much quieter, displaying a humility one hopes…

On the morning of October 14, 1947 a small, rocket-powered aircraft flew its way into the history books. On that day, the myth of an impenetrable sound barrier was broken and forever changed the way the world viewed powered flight. Over the next 70 years, Air Force pilots would push the limits of speed, testing…

ANYONE REMEMBER THE F-20 TIGERSHARK? CHUCK YEAGER DOES! BACK IN THE 1980’S NORTHROP PRIVATELY FUNDED THE BUILDING OF THE F-20 TIGERSHARK. A VARIANT OF THE F-5 IT WAS INITIALLY DESIGNATED THE F-5G. THE TIGERSHARK FIRST FLEW IN 1982 AND ONLY THREE AIRCRAFT WERE EVER BUILT. WATCH THE F-20 TIGERSHARK IN ACTION Back in the 1980’s Northrop…

By Jim Clash, Forbes.com Often, famous people played by movie actors are not happy with the results. But Chuck Yeager had good things to say about “The Right Stuff,” the 1983 movie chronicling the early space race in which he’s played by actor Sam Shepard. The General and former U.S. Air Force pilot also said it was duty…

As Andy Green prepares to hit 1,000 mph in his Bloodhound SSC jet/rocket car in South Africa later this year, we thought now would be a good time to reminisce about his current world record. In 1997, 50 years after Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier in an aircraft, Green did it…

This Article originally appeared in Boys Life in June 1947, 4 months before the actual breaking of the sound barrier. Little did they know it was only months away when this was published!