English subtitles for clip: File:Yeager supersonic flight 1947.ogv

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In October 1947 at Muroc Desert Test Center in California

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history is made by this aircraft, the XS-1

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and its pilot, Captain Charles E. Yeager. 

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This airplane and this pilot are about to be the first ever to fly 

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faster than the speed of sound in level flight. 

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A B-29 will take the XS-1 aloft

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and launch her at an altitude of about 35,000 ft. 

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The XS-1 is not a military aircraft 

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but a flying research laboratory,

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designed to test the effects of supersonic flight upon airplanes. 

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It is powered by four rocket engines

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its weight empty is less than 5,000 pounds

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but it carries 8,000 pounds of fuel. 

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B-29s have done a lot of memorable things

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but none of them ever before had a mission quite like this one

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and no airplane ever did what the XS-1 is about to do. 

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Cracking the sound barrier in level flight

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will be more than a spectacular feat 

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It will also give the Air Force valuable knowledge of 
the resources of new propulsion systems.

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Captain Yeager gets aboard the XS-1

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It can't be a long flight he is going to have in the little aircraft.

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At full power the flight can't last more than two and a half minutes

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but it's going to be a fast one.

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Ready! 

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The radar crews are ready, too, 

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to do the timing, the only possible method 

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for timing aircraft at extremely high altitudes.

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There she goes!

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A big moment in a history-making flight.

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Now she is approaching the barrier. 

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The speed of sound at 35,000 ft is 660 MPH. 

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The really big moment.  Through the sound barrier. 

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The first time ever in level flight. 

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For the first time, except in dive, a man has flown an airplane faster than the speed of sound.

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It earned Captain Yeager many honors, and the historic plane, the XS-1 

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earned the resting place in the Smithsonian Institution.