At the end of World War II, the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, working separately with the Navy and Air Force, began working on different approaches to attaining high-speed flight. Bell Aircraft Corporation, using engines by Aerojet Engineering Corporation, won the contract to build three X-1 aircraft. The X-1 was no normal airplane; it was a rocket, fueled with liquid oxygen and alcohol propellants and driven by a 6,000-pound-thrust engine. To conserve fuel, the X-1 would be carried aloft by a specially fitted B-29 bomber and released.
On October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force piloted his Bell X-1, the Glamorous Glennis, to a speed of Mach 1.07, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier. Being the first country to fly faster than the speed of sound was a matter of national prestige, and further bolstered aeronautical testing and innovation.
What other military-driven “firsts” would you like to see on future stamps?
USPS Stamp of Approval 