Today in History - October 14, 1947 - First supersonic flight. The research program that led to this accomplishment started in 1946 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) [now National Aeronautics and Space Administration], the Army Air Forces, and Bell Aircraft Inc. They built two XS-1 experimental research aircraft to conduct pioneering tests at what is now  the Edwards Air Force Base in California. The goal of the testing was to obtain flight data on conditions in the transonic speeds.

It took another two decades before supersonic flight went commercial. This happened on December 31, 1968 when The Russian TU-144 became the first commercial supersonic airliner flown. Building on their supersonic military jets, the Russians developed the first supersonic commercial airliner called the Tupolev 144. Later the U.K. developed the Concorde supersonic passenger jet. Athough successful as a collaborative technical effort, it did not survive the marketplace; it was too expensive to maintain, demand was not high enough at the prices required and the public put many constraints on flight paths due to the noise pollution of the sonic boom.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on supersonic flight and aerospace engineering. Curricular resources and events can be found on the Aerospace Engineering Education, Engineering Mechanics Education and Mechanical Engineering Education community sites.