From the Wright Brothers and biplanes air transportation really took off. In less than a half century men would be traveling through the air faster than sound.
A secret British project began research on supersonic planes in 1942. World War II was driving many new technologies forward. The Germans had a similar program at Messerschmitt for the Luftwaffe. American and British collaboration produced the first supersonic fighter planes. Two Americans and a German vie for the title of first man to exceed the speed of sound. Test pilot Chuck Yeager was the first to break the sound barrier in an officially documented flight flying the Bell X-1 test jet; October 14, 1947. George Welch reportedly broke the sound barrier several weeks before on October 1st in an F-86 Sabre, but there were no scientific measurements taken of this event. Welch died a few years later as his F-100 Sabre test aircraft disintegrated at around Mach 1.5. German pilot Hans Mutke later claimed to have broken the sound barrier two years before Yeager in secret tests of the Me- 262 before the German defeat.
Mach one, fast enough to break the sound barrier is about 761 miles per hour. Mach 2 is twice that, and Mach 5 is 5 times, etc.. These are approximate bench line numbers as speed, air resistance, and other variables vary according to altitude, but it is safe to say that flying at Mach 2 the Concorde carried passengers at speeds around 1500 miles per hour, and crossed the Atlantic just over three hours, a journey that once took months. Fuel economy was a bit lacking, however, as the Concorde averaged about 14 miles per gallon per passenger carried.
Since the X-1 there have been numerous supersonic military aircraft including both Soviet and American bombers, but due to the expense and worries over the noise most commercial supersonic ventures have failed. The now famous (and retired) SR-71 Blackbird spy plane could fly continuously at mach 3. The famous Concorde passenger jet flew from Paris or London to New York for several decades at just over mach 2, but the Concorde made its last flight in 2003. Some researchers are looking at smaller supersonic jets to market to a few very rich business travelers who could afford a supersonic private plane, and hypersonic test planes have reached Mach 5.5. High fuel costs and worries about environmental effects of sonic booms have stalled the promise of super fast world air travel, but technology may one day advance to the point of supersonic or hypersonic passenger travel, maybe in low orbit.
