1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,080 Today, many planes break the sound barrier with relative ease, but it wasn't too many 2 00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:13,040 years ago that the sound barrier was just that, a seemingly impenetrable, invisible 3 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:14,040 wall. 4 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:19,080 In fact, many aerodynamicists thought that the sound barrier may never be broken by man 5 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:25,080 until one man named Richard Whitcomb developed a theory called area rule that enabled efficient 6 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:29,240 supersonic flight to become a reality. 7 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:35,080 Before October of 1947, attempts to break the sound barrier usually ended in disaster. 8 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:41,520 That was until Chuck Yeager and the X-1 flew through the sound barrier on October 14, 1947. 9 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:43,960 The sound barrier had finally been broken. 10 00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:49,000 But there it was what I call a brute force approach in the sense that your rocket just 11 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000 rammed that airplane through the speed of sound, but the drag was so high that they 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,600 used up all the fuel in just about five minutes. 13 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:03,280 So it was not practical supersonic flight, but it did accomplish breaking of the barrier. 14 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,120 There needed to be a more efficient way to break the speed of sound. 15 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:09,520 Dick Whitcomb set out to find a way. 16 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:14,400 Whitcomb found that when a plane reached near supersonic speeds, the drag around the wings 17 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,720 would increase by as much as a factor of five. 18 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:23,120 He saw that much like a bullet, the fuselage was extremely aerodynamic without the wings, 19 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:28,760 and when the wings were added, an aerodynamic bump was causing incredible amounts of drag 20 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,000 that was slowing the plane down. 21 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:36,320 It became obvious to him that he had to find a way to take the bump out of the equation. 22 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:41,680 Whitcomb's tests showed that when he added the entire area of wings and fuselage together, 23 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:48,160 the drag or aerodynamic bump was exactly the same as the drag of a fuselage with wings. 24 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:53,360 He worked tirelessly to find a solution when one day as he was thinking about the problem, 25 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,160 the solution hit him like a bolt of lightning. 26 00:01:56,160 --> 00:02:01,080 He must indent or pinch in the waste of the fuselage. 27 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:05,880 This new shape of the fuselage would closely resemble the shape of a Coke bottle. 28 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:11,000 Whitcomb was astonished to find that by changing the shape of the fuselage, he took the bump 29 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,320 out of the equation and allowed the plane to become as aerodynamically smooth as a fuselage 30 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:17,840 without wings. 31 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,880 This very simple fix came to be known as the area rule. 32 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:27,760 I had the idea, then we built some models to try and demonstrate it. 33 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:34,840 We built airplanes with the Coke bottle shaped fuselages, and lo and behold, the drag of 34 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:36,640 the wing just disappeared. 35 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:40,240 Now there was when I was really thrilled. 36 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:45,480 That was far, that was a year or two before anything flew, but there the wind tunnel showed 37 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,200 that it just, it worked perfectly. 38 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:50,880 It was not some oddball theory. 39 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:54,320 It was a practical means of reducing drag. 40 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:59,720 When the area rule concept was flight tested on the newly converted F-102 fighter, the 41 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:03,000 plane soared through the sound barrier with ease. 42 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,880 Whitcomb's discovery revolutionized the way that supersonic fighters, bombers, and transports 43 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,560 were built from the 1950s through today. 44 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:16,320 In fact, the area rule concept is still used on many modern planes, including the B-1 bomber 45 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:19,120 and the Boeing 747. 46 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:24,360 Dick Whitcomb's intuition and daring led to a revolution in air technology that has forever 47 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:29,160 changed the history of flight. 48 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,840 For his effort in developing the area rule concept, Dr. Whitcomb won the prestigious 49 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:37,600 Collier Trophy, which is awarded annually for great achievement in aeronautics and astronautics 50 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:39,120 in America. 51 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:43,120 Coming up, we'll see how NASA researchers are working on a morphing technology that 52 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,840 will allow future aircraft to fly like birds. 53 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:50,680 But first, did you know that Jacqueline Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier? 54 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:55,400 Cochran broke the barrier May 18, 1953, in an F-86 Sabre jet. 55 00:03:55,400 --> 00:04:00,760 At the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records 56 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:05,960 than any other pilot, man or woman, in history.