10/14/2026
On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager made aviation history when he flew the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" through the sound barrier.
But before Yeager could take an airplane past Mach 1, another airplane first had to carry him most of the way there. That job belonged to a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
The X-1 was powered by a rocket engine, and carrying enough propellant to take off from the ground, climb to altitude, and still conduct its high-speed research run would have added enormous weight. Instead, engineers turned the B-29 into a flying launch platform. The little orange rocket plane was tucked into the Superfortress's bomb bay and carried thousands of feet above the Mojave Desert before being released. NASA identifies the mothership as B-29A serial number 45-21800.
On the morning of October 14, the B-29 took off from Muroc at about 10 a.m. with the X-1 aboard. As the bomber climbed, Yeager moved from the B-29 into the cramped cockpit of the X-1, no small feat considering that he was secretly flying with two broken ribs from a horseback-riding accident only days earlier.
At the controls of the B-29 was Maj. Robert “Bob” Cardenas, himself an accomplished combat veteran and test pilot. Cardenas had flown B-24 combat missions during World War II, been shot down over Germany, and later became one of the Air Force's important experimental pilots. On this mission, however, his job was to put Yeager and the X-1 in exactly the right place, altitude, and airspeed for the drop.
Capt. Jack Ridley, the X-1 project engineer, was also aboard as copilot, and helped Yeager prepare the rocket plane for release. 1st Lt. Edward “Ed” Swindell served as the bomber's flight engineer. The surviving radio transcript lets us hear the operation almost minute by minute, with Cardenas calling the countdown, Swindell monitoring the Superfortress, and Ridley working through the X-1's final preparations with Yeager.
Near the release point, Cardenas accelerated the B-29 to about 250 mph and began the countdown. At zero, the release mechanism was activated, and the X-1 dropped clear of the Superfortress. Yeager lit the rocket chambers, climbed away, and eventually reached Mach 1.06 at roughly 43,000 feet, becoming the first person to fly faster than sound in level flight.
Yeager deservedly became the name history remembers from October 14, 1947, but he could not get to the sound barrier by himself. A B-29 helped take him there.
