[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 16, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11614-H11616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AERONAUTICS RESEARCH
ACCOMPLISHMENTS EMBODIED IN ``THE BREAKING OF THE SOUND BARRIER''
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to
the resolution (H. Res. 736) honoring the 60th anniversary of the
aeronautics research accomplishments embodied in ``the breaking of the
sound barrier''.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 736
Whereas the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
(NACA), and its successor agency, the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA), developed and sustained the
world's preeminent aeronautics research program after NACA's
formation in 1915;
Whereas the speed of sound once presented a seemingly
impenetrable and dangerous barrier to piloted flight;
Whereas NACA, the U.S. Air Force, and Bell Aircraft
undertook a joint project to develop and test the X-1
aircraft and achieve piloted supersonic flight;
Whereas on the morning of October 14, 1947, an X-1 aircraft
piloted by Captain Charles ``Chuck'' Yeager was dropped from
a B-29 carrier aircraft and ``broke the sound barrier'' and
achieved supersonic flight for the first time in history;
Whereas this flight provided proof of the feasibility of
piloted supersonic flight, and delivered the data required to
improve high speed performance and develop technologies for
advanced supersonic aircraft; and
Whereas subsequent X-plane aeronautics research projects
have built on the historic accomplishments of the X-1
aircraft and achieved advances in a wide range of aeronautics
research areas: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes and honors the contributions of the
scientists and engineers of NACA and its partners who
pioneered the technologies to enable supersonic flight;
(2) recognizes and honors the bravery of Charles Yeager,
and the bravery of the many other test pilots who, sometimes
at the cost of their lives, enabled the aeronautics
developments that made that first supersonic flight possible;
and
(3) recognizes the importance of strong and robust
aeronautics research activities to the well being of America.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Lampson) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Feeney) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
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may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on H. Res. 736, the resolution now under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I stand in strong support of this resolution honoring the 60th
anniversary of the breaking of the sound barrier, and I want to
compliment Mr. Rohrabacher for introducing it.
Last Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of Captain Charles ``Chuck''
Yeager's historic achievement that led to the first piloted flight at
supersonic speeds.
As an airplane approaches the speed of sound, shock waves build up,
creating increased drag, loss of lift and loss of control. Airplanes
had previously broken up under these conditions, and brave pilots died.
We now know that the passage from subsonic to supersonic speeds is
accompanied by some unusual phenomena which lie in the realm of
nonlinear mechanical events, events involving some degree of chaos.
America's bright engineers and brave pilots were not deterred. They
were drawn to the challenge of bursting through this obstacle to learn
what lies on the other side, where no human had ever been.
On October 14, 1947, Captain Yeager, sitting on four rocket engines,
blasted through that invisible barrier. Folks on the ground heard the
sonic boom, and they knew that he had made it. His successful test
flight freed humankind to travel faster and faster by providing data
that enabled the mapping of a path to a supersonic future.
This success required all of the ingredients of successful
innovation: technical competence, teamwork, a spirit of optimism and
adventure that accepts risk taking.
World War II fighter pilot Captain Chuck Yeager was recognized as the
man for this job. The X-1 was a joint project of the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics, NACA, the Air Force, and Bell Aircraft, with
the turbo-pump-equipped rocket made by Reaction Motors, Incorporated.
It has been described as a bullet with wings on it, just 31 feet long
and a 28-foot wingspan.
It's on display less than a mile from here over at the Air and Space
Museum, surrounded by many other great achievements of NACA and its
successor, NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The X-1 and subsequent aerospace achievements have kept us where the
action is and kept us technologically competitive. We want to stay in
this game for the next 60 years, and so I will continue to work to keep
America technologically competitive in aerospace and in all other areas
of innovation.
And with this resolution, I pay my respects to Chuck Yeager and to
the many men and women of America's great aerospace tradition. I thus
want to voice my support for this resolution, and I urge its adoption.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Lampson, and I yield the
initial 7 minutes of my time to the prime sponsor of the resolution, my
friend from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lampson and Mr. Feeney for
their hard work they have been doing here, not just on this legislation
but overseeing America's space program. You certainly have my respect
and my support, and I'm happy today for their support for this
legislation.
This bill takes note and honors America's historic aeronautic
accomplishments on the 60th anniversary of one of our great aviation
milestones, that of achieving mach 1, better known as breaking the
sound barrier.
It also honors those American scientists and technologists who
conceived and designed the Bell XS-1, as well as the courage of the
hero who flew the plane, General Chuck Yeager of West Virginia.
The leadership of Larry Bell of Bell Aircraft and John Stack of NACA,
which is the predecessor of NASA, are also recognized and applauded
here today.
The sound barrier was not called a barrier for nothing. As an
aircraft approaches the sound barrier, many of the subsonic rules of
aerodynamics change radically. Conventional airplanes that had flown
close to mach 1 before that, and they had done this mainly when they
were diving, were known to have shaken violently and quite often lost
control. On that morning of October 14, 1947, the principles of
supersonic flight were still not proven. It was unknown whether an
airplane could surpass the speed of sound and survive.
The XS-1 was pushing the envelope and it was dangerous. Behind the
plane, it was really a rocket, as described, a rocket with wings, which
is sort of like the plane I have here. Behind that lay the hard work
and dedication of pioneering American scientists and engineers who were
to write the book on supersonic design, beginning with the XS-1
project.
The XS-1, a bullet with wings, as they say, was the first high-speed
aircraft built purely for aviation research purposes, and the XS-1
project was destined to demonstrate that controlled, sustained flight
was possible at supersonic speeds.
In addition, this bill honors Chuck Yeager of West Virginia and all
that he represents in America's experimental aeronautics programs.
Besides not knowing whether the aircraft would break the sound barrier
without breaking apart, no one knew whether the human body could
survive the kinds of forces Yeager was about to undergo. He was one of
the best and the bravest, and he was, as Tom Wolfe described him, an
individual with the right stuff.
Not only did he reach mach 1 on that October morning at Edwards Air
Force Base, but he has repeated that on many occasions since, including
October 1997 on the 50th anniversary of his flight. His life has been
an inspiration to generations of young Americans and, yes, to young
people throughout the world.
And so on that October morning, American expertise in aeronautic
science and technology, and its human skills and experience in flight,
were put to the test and came together to tear down the sound barrier
wall and lead the way to a new era of aviation and to the space age
beyond.
To continue that tradition and the tradition of these pioneers, I
will be introducing an aeronautics and space prize scholarship bill
this week. This legislation will create a National Endowment for Space
and Aeronautical Technology Development, and it will include a
scholarship program, but its primary mission is to provide prizes for
those who break technology barriers and enable the further exploration
and utilization of space. Certainly, Chuck Yeager would have won one of
these prizes.
So I would ask my colleges to join Bart Gordon, Ralph Hall, Bud
Cramer and others who are in this in bipartisan support for creating
the National Endowment for Space and Aeronautics Technology
Development.
I would also ask my colleagues to join me tonight in supporting H.
Res. 736, honoring the 60th anniversary of this great milestone in
aeronautics and space technology development.
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FEENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I'm proud to be a cosponsor of this resolution, along with Mr.
Lampson, that Mr. Rohrabacher is the prime sponsor of, and it does a
number of important things.
It congratulates the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and
their test pilots. This was the successor agency to what we now know as
NASA. It honors the bravery of Chuck Yeager and all of the many other
test pilots that took on such risks, and it basically emphasizes a
strong and robust aeronautics research program for America.
As both Mr. Lampson and Mr. Rohrabacher have pointed out, Mr.
Yeager's historic flight on October 14, 1947, breaking the sound
barrier was a very dangerous and precarious experiment. At that time,
pilots routinely risked losing control of their aircraft or, sadly,
lost their lives due to extreme forces on the airplane.
But it's not just that great flight that made Chuck Yeager such a
great test pilot in America. Chuck Yeager was only 24 when he flew the
Bell X-1 on the famous flight above the Muroc
[[Page H11616]]
Army Air Field in California. Two days prior to his record-breaking
flight, Mr. Yeager broke two ribs after falling off a horse. Fearing
that knowledge of this injury would disqualify him from the scheduled
flight, he hid his injury from his superiors and, as a result, had to
improvise a way to close the latch on his plane.
Having successfully broken the sound barrier, others soon followed in
Mr. Yeager's footsteps, flying newly designed aircraft at higher and
higher speeds to help scientists and engineers gain critical knowledge
about transonic and supersonic flight.
Only 6 years later, Chuck Yeager flew another Bell-designed rocket
plane at more than twice the speed of sound.
A veteran of the Second World War, General Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs
in the European theater. He ended the war credited with 61 missions and
11.5 shootdowns of enemy aircraft, including five kills in just 1 day.
He was himself shot down over France, and with the help of the French
Resistance, was able to make his way back to England where he continued
flying against the Axis powers.
In the years following his historic flight, General Yeager continued
an illustrious career in the Air Force. Among other accomplishments, he
was the first commanding officer of the Air Force Aerospace Research
Pilot School and a commander of fighter wings and squadrons in Germany
and southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. He also continued to work
for NASA as a consulting test pilot.
On the 50th anniversary of his supersonic flight in 1997, General
Yeager, then 74, piloted an Air Force F-15 Eagle past mach 1.
General Yeager is a native of West Virginia and today resides in
California. He's a gifted pilot who spent his career in service to his
country, sometimes at extreme risk, defending our shores and advancing
our understanding of aeronautics.
Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to be a cosponsor and supporter of H. Res.
736, commemorating the 60th anniversary of General Yeager's first
flight exceeding the speed of sound. And with that, I would urge my
colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers. I'll just say that
we commend Chuck Yeager for his bravery and for the work that he did to
give us an opportunity to change the world, and we are quite excited
about what transpired since that time and looking forward to what's
going to happen in the future.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of our colleagues to
enthusiastically support this resolution.
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this
resolution.
I am an original cosponsor of H. Res. 736 because it is important to
recognize one of the amazing achievements of the Nation's aeronautics
R&D enterprise.
I also think it important to honor Captain Yeager and the other brave
test pilots who have helped push back the boundaries of flight--with
results that have benefited our security, our economic well-being, and
our quality of life.
As Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the Science
and Technology Committee, I am well aware that this amazing achievement
was not an isolated event. It is just one thrilling chapter in the
great story of American aviation and aerospace.
I am pleased that our predecessors in Congress recognized the
importance of aeronautics, and invested in it.
Americans were drawn to the challenges of advancing the state of
aeronautics, and they gave much of their discipline and intelligence to
overcome seemingly insurmountable technical obstacles.
At times, bravery was required, too, and the breaking of the sound
barrier is a good example of that.
Today we honor the 60th anniversary of Captain Chuck Yeager's
breaking of the sound barrier, but we also take inspiration from it to
renew our commitment to ensuring that America remains preeminent in
aeronautics R&D.
I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) that the House suspend the rules and
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 736.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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