NationStates Jolt Archive


Faster Than Sound

Farnhamia
12-10-2006, 22:56
Saturday the 14th is the 59th anniversary of Chuck Yeager's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager) flight in the Bell X-1, the first time a person had flown faster than the speed of sound. The Right Stuff, and all that. Cool movie, though Alan Shepard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shepard) didn't care for it, apparently (on the trivia front, Shepard's middle name is "Bartlett" and one of his ancestors was Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Hampshire, which is where the President of the US played by Martin Sheen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sheen), whose name is actually Ramon Estevez, was from and whose name was ... Josiah Bartlett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Bartlett)).

So anyway, in anticipation of the anniversary on Saturday and all, a celebratory thread for Yeager and the Test Pilots out at Edwards and Pax River and places.