Flying close to the speed of sound

[cpthayes]

I think I was watching the history channel a while back and they had a story about flying close to the speed of sound. I cant remember the dates but they said people were going up in aircraft and nose diving trying to fly the speed of sound only to find they couldnt come out of the dive. Lots of men died untill one actually survived to tell people how the aircraft was reacting. Does anyone know where I can find more on this story and where I can learn what they developed to overcome this phenomenon?

[rsdyrda]

never heard of that but it sounds a lot luck the "mach tuck" effect. in essence as an airplane gets closer to the speed of sound the elevator loses effectiveness and the nose "tucks" under.

a "steerable" elevator (i believe those were yeager's words) is what fixed the problem. modern jets have an automated mach trim that automatically adjusts the tail for this phenomenon.

http://142.26.194.131/aerodynamics1/...eed/Page6.html

[lnuss]

Or possibly it was the compressibility factor in dives. The aircraft weren't designed to take this and shock waves tore them to pieces, well short of the mach. If so, this was likely WW II fighters, the first to encounter the problem.

[Rockcliffe]

I remember reading about this in an old Popular Mechanics from the forties that I found at my grandmother's house when I was a kid. It was an account of a U.S. Army Air Corp pilot powerdiving in a P47 from some incredible altitude. It made quite an impression, given that I still remember it a few decades later.
Blair
CYOW

[sandgate]

Look up 'Geoffrey DeHavilland' on Google

or http://www.centennialofflight.gov/es...and/Aero49.htm

You'll find a lot of history regarding the sound barrier connected to his name.

Regards

John