Breaking the sound barrier is considered one of the greatest achievements of aviation, but how exactly did we manage to fly faster than sound?
'Sonic Boom' Of Light Captured For The First Time Ever -
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Gen. Chuck Yeager Describes How He Broke The Sound Barrier
The Bell XS-1 No. 1 streaked past the speed of sound that morning without too much fanfare-broken ribs notwithstanding. And when the Mach indicator stuttered off the scale barely 5 minutes after the drop from our mother B-29, America entered the second great age of aviation development.
Ultrafast Camera Captures 'Sonic Booms' of Light for First Time
"Just as aircraft flying at supersonic speeds create cone-shaped sonic booms, pulses of light can leave behind cone-shaped wakes of light. Now, a superfast camera has captured the first-ever video of these events."
Can You Survive Breaking The Sound Barrier?
"When an object moves through the atmosphere, it has to move the air molecules in front of it out of the way. As objects approach the speed of sound, air forms a "pressure wave" around the object. In order to exceed the speed of sound, it has to pierce that pressure wave, which can be heard by observers on the ground as a sonic boom."
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Special thanks to Julian Huguet for hosting and writing this episode of Seeker!
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