There are two other failure modes that likely caused the destruction of aircraft trying to break the sound barrier in this timeframe. Increase in drag itself is not likely the cause of the structural failures, as drag forces on an aircraft typically do not critically affect the structure. Did drag cause structural failures in WWII aircraft when approaching the speed of sound? Further, there was skepticism that aircraft propulsion systems could ever propel an aircraft to the speed regimes in the same way that a projectile achieves this speed by being shot from a gun. While bullets and cannonballs had exceeded the speed of sound for years, conventional wisdom held that humans could not exceed it. Did anything else break the sound barrier prior to 1947? At the time, no aircraft had successfully overcome this drag rise, so some predicted that it might not be possible. This shock formation and increase in drag is very sudden and large, and tends to be a “barrier” to any further acceleration of the aircraft. Both of these phenomena can create significant aircraft drag. These shock waves cause pressure fields on the wing (and the rest of the aircraft) and can lead to significant flow separation behind the shock waves. This increase comes from shockwaves forming in the accelerated flow over a wing, even though the aircraft itself is not yet exceeding the speed of sound. Aircraft that are not specifically designed to fly supersonically - those having little or no wing sweep and that have thick wings with blunt leading edges - exhibit a sharp rise in aircraft drag as they approach the speed of sound. In the 1940s, the proper design techniques and aerodynamic details for a successful supersonic aircraft were unknown. It was described as hitting an invisible wall. Why did people believe the sound barrier was a physical wall?ĭuring World War II, pilots reported aircraft tearing apart and instruments freezing when they dove during combat - possibly at the moment they approached the speed of sound. It’s approximately 770 mph or 1,239 kmh at sea level. The speed at which you break the sound barrier depends on many conditions, including weather and altitude. At what speed do you break the sound barrier? The moment an aircraft’s speed exceeds the speed of sound, it is said to have broken the sound barrier.

Today, we know that the sound barrier is the sudden increase in aerodynamic drag that happens when an object approaches the speed of sound - also known as Mach 1.

Where did these ideas originate? Here’s a quick primer on the sound barrier. Until Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, it was a commonly-held belief that exceeding the speed of sound - breaking the sound barrier - would destroy an aircraft. It wasn’t long ago that people believed the sound barrier was a physical barrier, a real yet invisible wall.

Speed of sound arma 3