Quick question: who was the first American to break the “sound barrier”? Chuck Yeager, right?
Most people would say that. Might want to guess again.
Persuasive evidence – apparently suppressed for roughly 50 years – indicates that an American quite likely if not almost certainly had broken the mythical “sound barrier” prior to Chuck Yeager doing so on 14 October 1947. Twice.
Yeager wasn’t the American who very likely did that. And rather than the Bell X-1, this was the aircraft that very likely did it:
. . .
The American who almost certainly first exceeded the mythical “sound barrier” was a former Army Air Forces war hero. His name? George Welch.
Those with knowledge of aviation history might recognize the name. Yes, that would be the same George Welch who (along with Ken Taylor) was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for aerial heroics at Pearl Harbor. Welch went on to become one of America’s premier World War II aces, with 16 confirmed kills by late 1943.
Unfortunately, Welch was flying in the South Pacific. Malaria nailed him – badly. It was severe enough to send him stateside early from the Pacific. And after serving stateside for a while, with the Army’s blessing he left the service to become a test pilot for North American Aviation.
Shortly after World War II, North American was developing the F-86. It was capable of high subsonic speed. Had we known about “area rule” design as applied to supersonic aircraft at that time, it would almost certainly have been America’s first supersonic aircraft.
Now, Welch wasn’t a big fan of Bell Aircraft. They’d designed the P-39 Aircobra which Welch flew early in World War II. When asked what he liked about the Aircobra, Welch said, “Well, it’s got twelve hundred pounds of Allison armor plate.” (Welch was referring to the aircraft’s engine, which was built by Allison and located behind the pilot. Performance-wise the Aircobra itself was a dog; Welch later got himself transferred to a unit flying Lockheed P-38s.)
Welch knew that Bell Aircraft was preparing to go supersonic with their experimental X-1 in the near future, at Muroc Field (what is today Edwards AFB). Bell had the Air Force’s blessing; the X-1 project was an Air Force favorite, and reputedly President Truman had promised Bell’s board chairman that Bell would be the first to break the “sound barrier”.
However, Welch was at the time also at Muroc; he was there to test North American’s prototype XF-86, which was capable of high subsonic flight. And the XF-86’s flight testing called for investigating the “high Mach region” – e.g., speeds close to the speed of sound.
. . .
So, what happens when you put an aircraft into a dive? It speeds up . . . right?
You guessed it: on 1 October 1947, Welch took the XF-86 up for a test flight – and investigated the “high Mach region”. And while doing that, Welch dove.
Welch had previously told one of the regulars at Pancho Barnes’ Rancho Oro Verde Fly Inn Dude Ranch (AKA the “Happy Bottom Riding Club” – yes, both the individual and the place portrayed in the book and movie The Right Stuff did exist) to look for the sound of an explosion. If they heard one, Welch told them to note the exact time and observe the reactions of those who heard it.
During Welch’s flight, the sound of what appeared to be a detonation was observed at the Fly Inn. Welch later compared notes with the individual he’d previously told to keep an ear out for sounds of an explosion.
The individual had in fact heard the sound – and noted the time. The time was during Welch’s dive.
Welch did the same again on 14 October 1947. This time, he did so approximately 20 minutes before Yeager’s more famous flight. And the sonic boom from Welch’s flight that day was also heard at the Fly Inn – and was reportedly far louder than that from Yeager’s flight.
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The Air Force never acknowledged Welch’s October 1947 flights. Why? Dunno. But I can hazard a guess.
The Bell X-1 project was an Air Force favorite, and was expensive; its existence had to be justified. (Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington had told North American that they were not to exceed Mach 1 with the XF-86 until after Bell had done so with the X-1.) Welch was a civilian employee of North American Aviation, while Yeager was a serving USAF officer. The optics of having someone in uniform be the first to “break the sound barrier” vice a civilian contractor would obviously have been better for the USAF from a PR standpoint.
Plus, the head of Bell Aircraft, Lawrence Bell, reputedly knew President Truman. You really think the USAF is gonna chance royally p!ssing-off the POTUS within a few weeks of becoming an independent military service? (smile)
But reportedly there are not only confirmatory ground reports of a sonic boom associated with of each of Welch’s October 1947 flights. There are supposedly instrumentation readings from the Muroc test range’s radar theodolite from roughly a month later that lend credence to claims on Welch’s behalf. (Welch himself never claimed to have been first to break the “sound barrier”.) Those radar theodolite readings verify that Welch did, in fact, officially exceed Mach 1 twice during testing of the XF-86 in November 1947. (Some accounts imply that radar theodolite readings exist for one or both of Welch’s October 1947 flights as well, but that may not be true.) Plus, Welch accurately described to one of North American’s aircraft designers the “Mach jump” instrumentation anomaly noted in early supersonic flight – and he did so not long after his 1 October 1947 flight, nearly 2 weeks before Yeager supposedly “first” observed that same anomaly.
Decide for yourself. History gives Yeager the credit – but I don’t think he was actually the first American to “break the sound barrier” during a controlled flight. I’m guessing that was George Welch.
. . .
Some might argue that Welch doesn’t deserve any credit for breaking the “sound barrier” because he had to dive in the XF-86 to exceed Mach 1. On the surface, that argument may appear to have merit. But bear with me for a moment. Because one can also make a similar – though somewhat different – argument about Yeager’s 14 October 1947 supersonic flight in the X-1.
Yeager’s first supersonic Bell X-1 flight is well-chronicled, so there’s no need to discuss it in detail. And it was indeed the first time the “sound barrier” was broken in level flight – technically speaking.
I say “technically speaking” because the Bell X-1 didn’t make that entire flight under its own power. Though capable of taking off from the ground, Yeager’s X-1 did not do so on Yeager’s 14 October 1947 flight. Rather, on that date it was carried to a high altitude by a B-29. It was then released to fly under its own power.
Would the Bell X-1 have been able to fly to altitude and then exceed Mach 1 in level flight that day? Who knows? (It certainly didn’t do so on 14 October 1947.) But if diving is a “NO-GO” regarding breaking the “sound barrier”, well, pray tell: why is flying only half of a typical air mission (no powered takeoff, being carried aloft instead by another aircraft and then released at high altitude) acceptable?
In fact, only one Bell X-1 flight involved a takeoff under the aircraft’s own power. Reputedly that flight indeed exceeded Mach 1, with Yeager at the controls – but it also occurred on 15 January 1949, nearly 15 months after Yeager’s first supersonic flight.
Personally, I think the credit should be split – with Welch recognized as the first American to break the “sound barrier”, and Yeager as the first to do so in level flight. But nearly 50 years of having the truth about Welch’s October 194 flights apparently withheld – plus Welch’s early death in a 1954 flight test accident – has led to Yeager getting sole credit.
. . .
OK, enough history. Enjoy the Weekend Open Thread, everyone – and the weekend.
References:
The first part of Welch’s career is is summarized here; the second part is summarized here. Both linked articles are excellent if somewhat biased reading (the author’s obviously a huge fan of Welch). Other claims are discussed in an article linked in the following author’s note.
Yeager’s career and accomplishments need no discussion. He truly was one of the “larger than life” figures of the early days of jet flight.
A few other Wikipedia articles were also used as background, mostly for checking dates and/or other specific items.
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Author’s Note: FWIW: while it’s generally accepted that an American was the first to break the “sound barrier”, there’s a chance that the first person to break the “sound barrier” wasn’t even an American. Several Germans flying jet- or rocket-powered aircraft during the latter stages of the war could conceivably have done so; some claims to this effect have been made. But most of those cases have been investigated in detail and have been reasonably (but not categorically) found to be “NO-GOs”. Most of them are listed here, along with Welch’s flights and a few other debunked claims.
However, two cases are worth mention as possibilities.
The first possibility is the case of Luftwaffe test pilot Lothar Sieber. It’s entirely possible that Sieber in fact exceeded Mach 1 on his first – and only – test flight of the Bachem Ba349 “Natter” (IMO a truly YGBSM! manned interceptor design developed and partially tested by Nazi Germany out of desperation late during the war) on 1 March 1945.
Read the linked article if you’d like more details on the Natter and its design. Suffice it to say that IMO both its design and operational conept would have made Rube Goldberg proud.
In any case: Sieber’s test flight was the first vertical launch of a manned rocket. He may well have exceeded Mach 1 at some point during this single manned test flight of the Ba349.
However, Sieber never claimed to have “gone supersonic”. The test was a failure, and Sieber did not survive the flight.
The second is the case of Luftwaffe pilot Hans Mutke. Like Welch, it’s possible he may have exceeded Mach 1 in a dive with his Me262 late in World War II (9 April 1945). His account, and flight profile (including a high-speed high-power dive), track Welch’s account from a few years later reasonably well. (His aircraft didn’t fare as well, though; it was damaged too badly to ever be flown again from aerodynamic stress.)
Initial analysis indicated that exceeding Mach 1 was not possible with the Me262 because that aircraft’s design would make the aircraft’s controls useless above Mach 1. This in turn would make the aircraft uncontrollable; it was believed that a safe return to subsonic flight would not be possible.
However, later analysis has indicated that the Me262 might indeed have been recoverable after exceeding Mach 1. Hans Mutke having exceeded Mach 1 in a dive during his flight on 9 April 1945 thus can’t be definitively ruled out.
