LOL...this thread is funny. Nice to know we have a supersonic 163 Club on here. Now to end the bickering....it's amazing the small grasp that folks have on really basic science... except for a few of the more enlightened of the bunch...Not surprised we americans have problems on understanding global warming and evolution.
Speed of Sound....an overview...
Disturbances are transmitted through a gas as a result of collisions between the randomly moving molecules in the gas. The transmission of a small disturbance through a gas is an isentropic process. The conditions in the gas are the same before and after the disturbance passes through. Because the speed of transmission depends on molecular collisions, the speed of sound depends on the state of the gas. The speed of sound is a constant within a given gas and the value of the constant depends on the type of gas (air, pure oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc.) and the temperature of the gas. Loosely translated....
55,000 ft 660mph
0 ft @ STP 761 MPH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Underwater.... 3,300 MPH
Those F-86 jocks are reconized as probably accomplishing the transonic threshhold, albeit for a very short length of time.. (hard to justify staying in that dive when your ride acts like a tourrette's baby) Yeager is identified as the first person recognized by SCIENTIFICALLY measured experiment to break it. Therefore... He is the first to do it, and have the measurements taken at all altitudes to prove it, and that's why he's the first.
more than my two cents but c' est l' vie...