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.

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