Chuck Yeager is famous for booming the California desert 60 years ago on the first supersonic flight of the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane. What many people don't know is that the supersonic flight program was directed from Wright Field — now Area B of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — near Dayton, Ohio.

The age of supersonic flight came at the same time the Army Air Forces became a separate military service. The XS-1 program began as an Army program with the civilian National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as a partner. It came to fruition under the Air Force. It was directed by the Flight Test Division at Wright Field. Yeager, who had come to Dayton as a maintenance test pilot, graduated from flight test school just in time to be the lead pilot for the XS-1 program. He was sent to Edwards — then Muroc Army Air Field — and soon punched through the so-called sonic wall.

There are claims that Yeager was not the first to go supersonic, but only the first to do so in level flight. Claims have been made that German pilot Hans Guido Mutke and George Schwartz "Wheaties" Welch both broke the sound barrier in dives prior to Yeager's flight. Neither claim is officially recognized.

Yeager is scheduled to visit Wright-Patterson on Oct. 26 for the "Flying Sergeants" reunion of the Army Air Corps Enlisted Pilots Association. Yeager started his flying career in World War II as a sergeant through a program that allowed non-commissioned officers to take flight training.

I wrote a children's biography about Yeager years ago. It's still available online. You can find a link to order the book and links for teachers' lesson plans, classroom activities and other resources — including a movie of X-1 flights — on my Chuck Yeager book page.

Tags: Chuck Yeager, X-1, supersonic flight, Wright Field

Watch my eight-minute movie about the centennial celebration that was held
on Huffman Prairie in 2005, featuring comments by Historian Tom Crouch
and Mark Dusenberry's flights in his replica Wright Flyer III.

On October 5, 1905, the Wright brothers ushered the world into the age of practical flight. On that day Wilbur took off from Huffman Prairie in Greene County, Ohio, in their 1905 Flyer III. Flying circle after circle, he kept the machine aloft for more than 39 minutes, covering 24 miles in 29 laps at an average speed of 38 miles per hour. The flight marked the end of their six years of experimentation.

Huffman Prairie is now a part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It’s also a part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and the National Aviation Heritage Area. On October 5, 2007, the National Park Service, the Air Force and the Aviation Heritage Foundation will hold a week of activities to celebrate the flight’s 102nd anniversary. The main event will be re-enactment of the flight by Mark Dusenberry in his Wright Flyer III replica.

The celebration will run from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The field will be open to the public at 8 a.m. The main attraction will be Dusenberry's flight. The plan is for Dusenberry to make a straight-line flight with two 90-degree turns -- not a circle, but you should be able to see him bank and turn the airplane much as the Wright brothers did. (In 2005, he was not allowed to make any turns.) School programming will commence following the flight.

All events are free and open to the public, according to the National Park Service. Spectators are encouraged to bring chairs. Access to the flying field is through Gate 16A, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, OH.

Near the prairie is the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center on Memorial Hill, where you can learn more about the leagacy of the Wright brothers, including the continuing research at Wright-Patterson. You can watch a film about the Wright brothes’s work and even try your hand at a 1911 Wright Flyer simulator.

Tags: Mark Dusenberry, Huffman Prairie, Wright Flyer III, Wright Brothers, aviation heritage