86 Mach on the sixth flight, the X-1 began to experience turbulence from the shock wave formed by the compression of the air. (The speed of sound is about 758 mph or 1,220 km/h at sea level, and decreases with altitude.) 2 Mach moves at only two-tenths the speed of sound, while Mach 1 is equal to it. Mach is a unit of measuring the speed of sound in a given medium a plane traveling at. 29, 1947, with subsequent attempts increasing speed by two-hundredths of a Mach number. Yeager's first test launch of the Glamorous Glennis took place on Aug. It was there that Yeager was selected to be the first person to attempt to exceed the speed of sound. Albert Boyd, in charge of the test program for the Air Force, invited him to become a test pilot, and Yeager accepted, transferring to Muroc to enroll in the Flight Performance School. In 1945, he was assigned as a maintenance officer to the Flight Test Division at Wright Field, Ohio, flight-testing the planes. From there on, I was in the right place at the right time," he told Forbes. "With my visual acuity and understanding of mechanics, I was really a hell of a lot better than the cadets. The military required a college education for its pilots, but when they didn't get enough applicants for the cadet flier program in 1942, they dropped the requirements to a high school diploma. Flying looked pretty good to me," he told Forbes. "But I noticed that, as a mechanic, my hands were always greasy while the pilots' were clean - and they had good-looking girls on their arms. In a 2017 interview with Forbes, Yeager said he was a gifted mechanic who had never seen an airplane before he turned 18. Like many of his generation, Yeager enrolled in the military in 1941. Army Air Corps at the age of 18 and served in World War II, where he flew 64 combat missions. Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. The man who would become the most famous test pilot in American history was born in West Virginia on Feb. Muroc Air Force Base - now known as Edwards Air Force Base - in the empty southern California desert provided an ideal spot for testing a variety of experimental vehicles, including the X-1. The plane, nicknamed the "Glamorous Glennis" for Yeager's wife, slowly approached the sound barrier over the course of nine flights.
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