"Scott Ferrin" wrote in message
...

Level? Because diving doesn't count. If it did they'd have just
strapped a guy into a big bomb and dropped it. When it broke mach
he'd pop the airbrakes and bail. They could have done THAT in WWII.
The level vs. diving is debatable I'm sure but it seems to me that was
the big deal.


It was certainly a big deal at the time. The term sound BARRIER
implied that it could never be broken and shouldn't be attempted.
There was enough known about mach limitations and compressability for all
the 'experts' to fall into one of two camps (yes and no)


Plenty of pilots died unintentionally while diving past their mach
limitations to make George Welch's feat significant. The fact that a
plane had (allegedly) gone past mach 1 and survived in reasonable shape -
disproved the widespread belief that the speed of sound was the absolute
limit that could ever be reached.

Being able to do Mach 2 while sucking on a pink gin, complaining about the
rock stars behind you and reading the Times less than 30 years later would
earn a place for the Concorde as well.




Cheers

Dave Kearton