Word: muroc
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Hole in the Wall. Walled off from the world by the desert and the strictest military secrecy, Muroc Air Force Base is a strange sort of community. In all it does, it is dedicated to military aircraft performance, with special emphasis on speed. In the realm of speed it also has its king. He is Captain Charles ("Chuck") Yeager, 26, a modest, blue-eyed test pilot with an infectious grin and an easy West Virginia drawl. What makes Chuck Yeager outstanding, even among the crack pilots at Muroc, is the fact that his name is certain to go down prominently...
Chuck punched the first hole on Oct. 14, 1947, when a B-29 took off from Muroc with his odd, fat little airplane nestled under its bomb-bay. Chuck's small craft had no propeller, no intake for a jet engine; only four rocket orifices in its stubby tail. The little airplane, the Bell X-1, was as daring a challenge to the unknown as the Wrights' first faltering biplane...
...flown it many times, working it up gradually toward the critical speed. The rocket plane handled beautifully, both when flying under rocket power and when gliding down so quietly that Chuck could hear the clock ticking on the instrument panel. After each landing, Captain Jackie L. Ridley, Muroc flight test engineer, analyzed the records of the X-1's instruments. On the whole, they were encouraging. But no one was sure what would happen at the critical speed. The sonic wall was still unpierced; the big test still lay ahead. Chuck is reported to have remarked cheerfully...
Cardenas called the last warning to all radio listeners: "B29 eight zero zero to NACA radar, Muroc Tower, F-80 chase aircraft. One minute warning...
...began the long glide to earth, listening to the clock ticking on the instrument panel. He somehow found this "awful boring," he says, and welcomed his spurt of interest when he landed the X-1 at close to 165 miles an hour and rolled to a stop on Muroc's smooth surface...