The first pilot to break the sound barrier in an aircraft did it again on Sunday. General Chuck Yeager flew faster than the speed of sound, exactly 65 years after his historic flight.
Sixty-five years after becoming the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound in an aircraft, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, 89, took off from Nellis Air Force Base in an F-15 near Las Vegas and broke the sound barrier at more than 30,000 feet above California’s Mojave Desert at 10:24 a.m. Sunday. He originally broke the record on October 14, 1947 at 10:24 a.m. at the same location. Yeager flew the F-15 as it took off and landed, but Capt. David Vincent of the 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis flew the aircraft while breaking the sound barrier.
Meanwhile, Felix Baumgartner is believed to have hit Mach 1.24, or 833.9 mph without flying in an aircraft. In other words, in just his underwear (we know what you’re thinking but we’re not going to write it) and a spacesuit.
Up 2.5 Hours; Down 13:30 (3:30 minutes freefall and 10:00 minutes controlled parachute descent). Excerpts of the mission Sunday when Fearless Felix Baumgartner jumped from the platform of a space capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth. The entire mission was broadcast on LIVE STREAM with over 8 million people watching on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/redbull and http://www.redbullstratos.com
According to preliminary data, Felix Baumgartner became the first person to reach supersonic speed without traveling in a jet or a spacecraft after jumping off a step the size of a skateboard on the space capsule that carried him up to an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth’s surface.