Some guy test driving a P47M in late 45 exceeded the speed of sound in a dive from 40k. Was testing some antenna or something....damned near augured in from what I recall of the story. Then again I suspect some german pilot probably broke it quite a bit before that.
British typhoon pilots are said to have also broken the sound barrier while compressing during dive bomb attacks. I believe none survived, which is a problem if you want to get into the history books.
BTW, do you know if Yeager still believes the Yanks invented the movable tail-plane (which I think was a feature of his record-breaking ride)? In fact it was invented by British boffins many years before (1942 I think) on a prototype plane.
But then many believe powered flight was an American invention too. What is with Americans and their insistence that they invented everything?
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Only last year some guy called Gore was saying he invented the World Wide Web...
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