--- title: Chuck Yeager: World's First Supersonic Man description: On the anniversary of the first-ever supersonic flight, LIFE.com pays tribute to Chuck Yeager -- an American original. canonical: https://time.com/3476025/chuck-yeager-worlds-first-supersonic-man/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-13T19:22:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:32.304Z og:title: Chuck Yeager: World's First Supersonic Man og:description: On the anniversary of the first-ever supersonic flight, LIFE.com pays tribute to Chuck Yeager -- an American original. og:url: https://time.com/3476025/chuck-yeager-worlds-first-supersonic-man/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc41e4a18e7df8b12/6986a73b55a859b33ba83046/141006-chuck-yeager.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Chuck Yeager 1947 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chuck Yeager: World's First Supersonic Man twitter:description: On the anniversary of the first-ever supersonic flight, LIFE.com pays tribute to Chuck Yeager -- an American original. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc41e4a18e7df8b12/6986a73b55a859b33ba83046/141006-chuck-yeager.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chuck Yeager: World's First Supersonic Man > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 13, 2014 7:22 PM UTC  United States Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager stands beside the plane in which he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier, 1947. United States Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager stands beside the plane in which he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier, 1947. U.S. Air Force by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 13, 2014 7:22 PM UTC Aviation records are made to be broken—even when the person breaking the record is outside of an aircraft. For example, when [Felix Baumgartner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix%5FBaumgartner) stepped out of a balloon gondola 128,000 feet above the surface of the earth in October 2012, he not only set the record for the highest free fall, but also became the first person to break the sound barrier with his own body—traveling at around 840 mph, or well over Mach 1, without the benefit, and relative safety, of a vehicle. But only history will tell if Baumgartner’s astonishing achievement—indeed, his multiple achievements—will ultimately be mentioned in the same breath as other landmark “firsts” in flight: the Wright bothers, or Armstrong on the moon, or Chuck Yeager’s Oct. 14, 1947, adventure in the aircraft he nicknamed _Glamorous Glennis_, after his wife. That was the day the 24-year-old Air Force captain and test pilot flew a rocket-powered Bell-X1 airplane faster than the speed of sound. Yeager and his plane were drop-launched from the bomb bay of a modified B-29 Superfortress bomber, and passed Mach 1 at an altitude of around 45,000 feet. Yeager (portrayed by Sam Shepard in [The Right Stuff](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FRight%5FStuff%5F%28film%29)) went on to set all sorts of other aviation records; was a highly decorated combat pilot; and is generally regarded as one of a small handful of the most accomplished humans to ever wedge himself into the cockpit of a plane. But it’s as “the world’s first supersonic man” that the retired brigadier general is now, and forever will be, most widely remembered. Here, on the anniversary of that milestone 1947 flight, LIFE.com pays tribute to [Charles Elwood Yeager](http://www.chuckyeager.com/)—an unconquerable American original.  United States Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager stands beside the plane in which he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier, 1947. 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