October 14: A Day of Mach 1s

Daring the daring, defying everyone, and destroying maneuverability, a demon was said to live near 750mph, or Mach 1, and everyone who had tried to tame it, perished. What was this monster? Find out here (note, pause the blog's iPod app while watching; WARNING: there's some nasty language further in after the missing man flyover and later, but otherwise it's good):

That was from The Right Stuff, which starts out telling the story of the test pilots and their deadly mission. No one could tame the demon, no one…that is, until, on October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager (now he’s a Brigadier General) took his turn to defy death in a newly redesigned X-1 and punched through the wall to find clear sailing and a world of technological opportunities on the other side. From that point forward, the demon became nothing more than a past memory as records began to be broken in speed and technological advancement on an unprecedented scale, at least for the U.S. anyway—the success was kept top secret for as long as possible until the other nations figured out how to break the sound barrier themselves. After the sound barrier was first broken, it became possible to consider rocket science, which Russia took the first step in. The Space Race that followed could never have been accomplished without the great Chuck Yeager who rode and conquered the demon.
As the new age of space exploration, there always loomed a question: “If something were to go wrong while in space and an astronaut had to bail out, could the astronaut do it? Although safety precautions, measures, and preparations were taken, that was on of the dangers of space travel. Once in space, it was hard to return to earth without the capsule. there didn’t seem like there was really a way to bail out. On August 16, 1960, Captain Joe Kittenger took the first step—or leap—toward researching such a possibility by being the first man to free fall from space. More recently, another man has been combining free fall, the sound barrier, and testing into one record setting leap. On October 14, Felix Baumgartner broke the speed of sound without any mechanical aid by free falling from 128,000+ feet in altitude, the highest free fall jump ever attempted, testing a new type of space suit to boot. As a result of his jump, better safety procedures may be made, a more versatile space suit may be had, and it is now known what happens when man accelerates to and surpasses the speed of sound without what in modern times is the shielding protection of a metal aircraft. (I say “modern” because the jet afforded no protection to the early test pilots.) We have certainly come quite a ways from trying to find the secret to supersonic flight and I love the fact that the two biggest breakthroughs concerning the sound barrier happened the same day (though obviously not the same year) I was born! There’s actually quite a lot of things that have happened on the October 14ths through history. Do you know what major event(s) happened on your birthday? October 14 is filled with Mach 1s; maybe your birthday is too!


Thanks for the birthday wishes!  Now that my PSAT is out of the way, the next post: Tips and Tricks for Poptropolis Games!

From the Hideout,
Cpt. Busy Seagull!