Sound Barrier 50th Anniversary
Chuck Yeager and why it wouldn't happen today
by Patrick Collins
On October 14 Brigadier-General "Chuck" Yeager flew through Mach 1 in an F-15 to mark the 50th anniversary of when he first broke the sound barrier back in 1947. His achievement has been called "... the most significant aerospace achievement between the Wright brothers and the landing on the Moon".
However, Brig-Gen Yeager modestly describes his historic accomplishment as just following instructions: "Break Mach 1; don't bust your ass; and don't screw it up. That was it."
But he also has more to say: "Something like that wouldn't happen today. It would take 600 people six months and all kinds of damn safety review boards. We just did what we had to do and it worked."
He wasn't joking. The progressive bureaucratization of military aviation and civilian space activities over the past decades is the reason why travel to and from space is so mind-bogglingly expensive today - not because it's particularly difficult to get there. (After all, the Soviet Union got there forty years ago this week with Sputnik 1.)
The good thing is that this strange situation has created the opportunity for commercial companies to reduce the cost of launch dramatically - if they can raise the funds to do it.
Chuck Yeager has also been talking about the space program. At a recent talk in Dryden, he was asked what he thought of the space program and the International Space Station and didn't seem too impressed. Too expensive for the benefits and not worth the cost, reckons Yeager.
By good timing, the British "Thrust SSC" car having recently captured the land speed record, managed to break the sound barrier on the ground on the same day - a neat 50th anniversary!
However, Brig-Gen Yeager modestly describes his historic accomplishment as just following instructions: "Break Mach 1; don't bust your ass; and don't screw it up. That was it."
But he also has more to say: "Something like that wouldn't happen today. It would take 600 people six months and all kinds of damn safety review boards. We just did what we had to do and it worked."
He wasn't joking. The progressive bureaucratization of military aviation and civilian space activities over the past decades is the reason why travel to and from space is so mind-bogglingly expensive today - not because it's particularly difficult to get there. (After all, the Soviet Union got there forty years ago this week with Sputnik 1.)
The good thing is that this strange situation has created the opportunity for commercial companies to reduce the cost of launch dramatically - if they can raise the funds to do it.
Chuck Yeager has also been talking about the space program. At a recent talk in Dryden, he was asked what he thought of the space program and the International Space Station and didn't seem too impressed. Too expensive for the benefits and not worth the cost, reckons Yeager.
By good timing, the British "Thrust SSC" car having recently captured the land speed record, managed to break the sound barrier on the ground on the same day - a neat 50th anniversary!
