The experimental aircraft is tumbling out of control at an altitude of 85,000 feet and falling toward the mountains.  With the pilot unconscious, there is no one flying the aircraft.  Amazingly the pilot regains consciousness just in time to "punch out" of the doomed aircraft and before becomes part of the landscape.

Seconds later the aircraft explodes in a huge destructive fireball.  All in a day's work for this military test pilot.  Throughout his life, BG Yeager risked that life in the pursute of the ultimate flying machine.

Years earlier: The X-1 experemental airplane had to be attached to the belly of a B-29 bomber.  The X-1 is unable to launch from the ground under its own power as it's fuel load is just enough for 3-4 minutes of flight time.  Only when the B-29 reaches 25,000 feet, will the crew of the B-29 opens a hatch and allows the pilot to enter into his aircraft.  Once the pilot is securely in his plane, the B-29 would begin to dive to reach a speed of 250 knots, the minimum airspead for the X-1.  Once this speed was achieved, the "parasite" plane is released.  Once the aircraft is released, the pilot would ignite the main engines and the flight is on.  A very unusaul flight.

This was not an ordinary flight.  Nothing appeared out of the ordinary today except the pilot, Chuck Yeager, had broken his ribs after being thrown from a horse the night before.  After a series of flights, each of which was successful in its own right, the pilot decided to push the aircraft a little further.  Little did he know that today he would make history and forever change the world of aviation.

Then it happend.  The aircraft began to buffet at .85 MACH, but the pilot continued to advance the throttle.  The speed passed through .88 MACH, the buffeting continues.  Suddenly the airspeed indicator goes off the scale and all buffeting stops.  On the ground, there is a very pronounced BOOM heard by those at Muroc Airfield.  The aircraft has just passed MACH 1 and then Captain Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager has become the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound.  He has broken the invisible barrier which for years was rumored to be impossible to survive if encountered.  The aircraft is "Glamorous Glennis", the bright orange Bell X-1.  The date is 14 October 1947.