- Title: Breaking The Sound Barrier
- Date: 7th July 1997
- Summary: The programme reveals how close Britian came to winning the race to fly faster than sound - a race won by the Americans in 1947.
- Description:The film will cover the work carried out by designers, engineers and test pilots in Britain, Germany and the United States during a unique period when immense hurdles in engine development and airframe design had to be overcome if the so-called 'sound barrier' was to be broken. The outbreak of war added extra urgency to the race to understand the problems of compressibility and to develop engines powerful enough to hurl a new breed of aircraft through the atmosphere at previously undreamt of speeds. Highlights are Germany's success in getting the first jet aircraft into the air; the first flight of Whittle's Gloster E.28 in 1941; the work done by British and American pilots investigating compressibility effects in the transonic region by putting aircraft such as the Typhoon and P.47 Thunderbolt into terminal velocity dives; the design and cancellation of Britain's most promising supersonic aircraft in 1946; and of course the development and testing of the XP-59 and especially the X-1 (particularly the flight on 14 October 1947).
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Lauderdale Productions LTD
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:07/07/1997
- Rights:On Request
- Decade: 1990s