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USAF Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager pilot of the Bell X-1 stands next to aircraft after historic flight, October 14, 1947.

On October 14, 1947, with USAF Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager as pilot, the X-1-1 flew faster than the speed of sound for
what is generally accepted as the first supersonic flight by a piloted aircraft. Captain Yeager ignited the four-chambered XLR-11 rocket engines after being air-launched from under the bomb bay of a JTB-29A (#45-21800) at 21,000 feet. The 6,000-pound thrust ethyl alcohol/liquid oxygen burning rockets, built by Reaction Motors, Inc., pushed him up to a speed of approximately
700 mph, or Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 43,000 feet. Chuck Yeager named his plane "Glamorous Glennis" arter his wife Glennis.