Word: maching
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...this height, the airplane (presumably rocket-propelled) must fly at something like Mach 10 (more than 7,000 m.p.h.) to get enough lift out of the thin air. When the pilot bails out, however, the thinness of the air comes to his rescue: he does not feel so much shock as he would when leaving a present-day airplane at comparatively low altitude...
Instead of shock, he gets heat. Air hitting a body moving at Mach 10 raises its surface temperature by 7,500°F. This is not so bad as it looks at first glance; there is so little air that not much heat is transferred to the speeding body. The pilot or his capsule, nevertheless, needs protection against heat damage...
When the pilot has slowed to about Mach 1 below 100,000 ft., he needs protection not from heat but from cold. He also needs oxygen, and when his low-altitude parachute has opened and he has settled safely to earth, he may need a compass, map, food and other survival supplies. He will not be easy to find: his initial speed will have carried him 250 miles horizontally from the point where he left his airplane...
...Mach 2. Man has now flown twice as fast as sound. The feat was performed by Scott Crossfield, 32, pilot for the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), which has taken over the famed Douglas Skyrocket, first flown by Test Pilot Bill Bridgeman in 1947. Last week the Skyrocket, with Crossfield at the controls, was dropped from a B-29 at 32,000 ft. above Muroc Dry Lake. After following a careful flight plan (climbing so as to reach high altitude with a minimum expenditure of fuel), Crossfield nosed over and flew practically level under full power. The machmeter, which...
...temperature over the Channel was only 72° F., while Barns flew over the hot desert near Salton Sea, Calif, in air at 104° F. Since the speed of sound is lower in cooler air, Duke approached more closely the resistance point that waits just below Mach...