"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...

Welch's flight the day he went mach 1 was not scheduled as a try for the
barrier. He did it on his own, knowing full well that Yeager was scheduled
the following week to make the attempt in the X1.
There were about 30 people at Pancho's that heard the boom; almost all of
them employees of various aircraft manufactures and military personel
assigned at Edwards for flight test. These people were all quite
knowledgable on the subject of Yeager, Welch, Bell, and the prototype
Sabre. At least 2 of these people knew about Welch making the attempt that
day even though unscheduled.
If you mean by not having proof that Welch's flight didn't make the news
and that it was hushed up by the Air Force, you are absolutely correct. If
you mean that the people I know personally who were there when it happened
were"mistaken", I'm afraid I would tend to allow you your belief and
simply let it go at that :-)
All this having been said, I believe anyone seriously researching deeply
into this event will come up with enough "proof" to choke a horse.
This one is right up there with needing the "proof" that it was Rex Barber
who got Yamamoto and not Lamphier. Given enough time, the Welch flight
will take it's proper place in history.


I'm familiar with Welch's flight that day. That's why I can confidently say
that Welch probably exceeded Mach 1 before Yeager did, but that's all that
can be said about it.