Who Was Really The First?

When Chuck Yeager made his "memorable" flight with the Bell X-1 on 14 October 1947 it was certainly not the first time that anyone had exceeded Mach 1.

Doubtless a small group of engineers at Messerschmitt had already been researching into supersonic flight in 1944/45 and the Me262 was perhaps already a first step in this direction, although it was still a subsonic aircraft. Shortly before the end of the war Messerschmitt attempted to improve on the performance of the Me262 with the development of the Me 1101 and two other variants which he already had on the drawing board. At the end of the war the first Me 1101, although far from being ready for a first flight, was in an advanced stage of construction at Oberammergau where it was inspected by a development team from the American company Bell and then taken to the USA. Bell was almost certainly already working on the development of the X-1 at this time as a supersonic aircraft. Admittedly the X-1 was a rocket powered aircraft whereas the Me262 was a jet powered aircraft.

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Me 262 A-1

It is amazing to consider the performance that was achieved by the Me262, despite the fact that it was still not fully developed and the poor quality of wartime construction in 1944/45 which was due to the aircraft being hastily built in large numbers in different factories, partly by foreign workers and often with defective materials. The aircraft was designed for a maximum speed of 1000 km/ h but at that time none of us operational pilots were aware of the existence of the, "sound barrier" - this expression was only later invented by Prof Ackeret from Zurich. G.Mutke spoke on several occasions to Prof. Ackeret in Zürich in the summer of 1945 although they did not discuss this subject.

The pilots were under strict instructions not to exceed 950 km/h, although there was no mention in these instructions of altitude. In fact Me262s had occasionally crashed without the pilots being able to make any report. We can surmise today that these crashes were caused by pilots approaching the sound barrier and entering the area of buffeting or even crossing into the transonic area or perhaps even breaking through the sound barrier. The aircraft were then not able to withstand the resulting stresses and shock waves and finally broke up. lt would be natural for pilots to push their aircraft to the limits and some would therefore almost certainly have attempted to fly in excess of 1000 km/h although at this time the variation in the speed of sound with altitude was unknown. lt is not surprising that these pilots did not report their attempts since they were threatened with severe disciplinary action if they flew the aircraft at more than 950 km/h or did anything which caused damage to these very valuable aircraft. Apart from the existence of these unexplained crashes we have no direct evidence to support the theory that they were caused by pilots approaching the sound barrier.

On a flight with a Me262, flown by G. Mutke, on 9 April 1945 over Innsbruck he entered a 40°~50° dive under full power from about 36.000 ft and broke through the sound barrier as a result of a combination of factors which on this occasion combined together in a positive manner. His claim is supported by the fact that the controls of the aircraft became totally ineffective shortly before reaching the sound barrier and then full control was regained a few moments later. At the same time both engines flamed-out and the aircraft suffered severe damage. lt is as a result of a pure coincidence that he came to realise that he must have exceeded Mach 1 on this flight on 9 April 1945 with the Me262 "Weisse 9" from III EJG-2. This occurred during a discussion with a group of test pilots during the international meeting "50 Years of Jet Powered Flight" held in Munich in 1989..

In addition one more person participated in the discussion:

Dr.med. Hans Guido Mutke: Pilot of the Messerschmitt Me 110 and Me 262. He flew a supersonic flight on 9 april 1945 with a Me 262 over Innsbruck. Expert of Air- and Space medicine.

"50 Years of Jet Powered Flight"

In a discussion with Wolfgang Späte, a well known test pilot and colonel in the German Luftwaffe, who became involved in the Me163 program as early as 1942 and then later, after the war, carried out supersonic flights in France, we established that the sound barrier must have been broken on G. Mutke's flight in the Me262. This is based on the fact that the aircraft became uncontrollable during a strong and short buffeting phase and then control was regained, while the airspeed indicator remained on the stop at 1100 km/h, and both engines suffered a flame-out. This was published in the report of the meeting.

One of the main points often repeated during later discussions was that the Me 262 was a subsonic aircraft and that neither the wing-sweep nor the wing thickness were suitable for supersonic flight. The wing-sweep was always considered to be a critical factor but this was later proved incorrect as the Bell X-1 and the F 104 were supersonic aircraft and had straight wings ,i.e. zero wing-sweep. The maximum thickness ot the aerofoil (about 11% for the Me 262) also plays an important role and is one of the reasons that when an aircraft will result. This was the case with Mutke's flight on 9 April 1945 when the Me 262 Weisse 9 was so badly damaged that it was no longer repairable.

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Me 262 "Weisse 9" WkNr.111617

Today of course we know a lot more about the so-called "sound barrier", even though some factors are still not quite clear, and we can clearly differentiate between the configurations required for subsonic and supersonic aircraft. However at that time many pilots world-wide, especially in America and England, lost their lives due to ignorance of this critical area of flight. In G. Mutke's opinion, and with hindsight, the decisive factor was often that the pilots approached the sound barrier very cautiously, tentatively and slowly thereby exposing the aircraft to the heavy loads, shocks and vibrations of the buffeting area for too long so that the aircraft finally suffered material failure and broke-up.

In the quest to exceed Mach 1 we must differentiate between the pilot's performance and that of the aircraft (the skills of the design engineers). The pilot's contribution is relatively minor since if the aircraft is capable of exceeding Mach 1 then it will do so without requiring any special skills from the pilot. This is certainly G. Mutke's experience.

After the war G. Mutke was flying as a DC3 Captain in Bolivia. The relatively inexperienced German chief pilot, who had only flown Junkers 52 and DC3, doubted that he would be able to fly the route from Santa Cruz to La Paz with the DC3 - a typical case of arrogance. When G. Mutke explained to him that if the aircraft was capable of getting there then it would take him with it, he was not able to understand what he meant. By that time, 1951/52, G. Mutke had already flown some 15 different aircraft types, induding the Me262. The route from Santa Cruz, which is located in the jungles to the east of Bolivia, directly up to La Paz requires a continual climb which passes through almost every climatic condition found in the world. Down in Santa Cruz the humidity often reaches 95% and temperatures up to 40. Then you climb over the Alti Plano, past Cochobamba to La Paz, the highest airport in the World at an altitude of 4080 m, where the temperature in the shade, even in summer, is often below zero. Due to his arrogance he had failed to appreciate that carrying out such a flight, passing through different climatic zones in a short period of time (as is the case in every ascent in the Alps), does not require exceptional pilot skills. In reality it is the achievement of the aircraft, i.e. the skill of the design engineer.

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Sabre XP-86

Even the Russian Cosmonaut Walentina Tereschkova was more or less carried as ballast through space, reportedly frequently experiencing nausea, and at times vomiting. G. Mutke made her acquaintance, and also Sawitzkaja, at a meeting in Budapest. Also in space travel, the greatest contribution comes from the technical side, from the engineers; although the stresses on an astronaut are considerable and not to be compared with those experienced by the pilot of an aircraft.

In the case of the sound barrier there is another factor which needs to be considered, again one which is largely independent of the pilot's abilities. Exceeding Mach 1 in level flight, as for example with the Bell X-1, does not require much pilot contribution because the aircraft, on the basis of its design and performance, takes the pilot along with it provided he handles it correctly. Other aircraft at that time were not capable of going supersonic in level flight, as for example the Me262 and XP-86 (Sabre), since they did not possess the necessary performance and experiments were sometimes carried out using additional rocket assistance. However in a dive, starting at an appropriate altitude of at least 30.000 ft, both the Me262 and XP-86 exceeded Mach 1 without any additional rocket power. Carrying out such maneuvers without crashing is more demanding for the pilots and also much more dangerous than going supersonic in level flight, where the pilot just has to sit there, overstated as this might sound. Clearly, in both cases, there is a high risk factor the first time it is attempted since there is no experience to fall back on. Both Goodlin and Yeager reported how surprisingly simple it was to break through the sound barrier for the first time, and G. Mutke can also confirm this from his experience apart, that is, from the resulting severe damage to his aircraft. The buffeting was so strong that he was not aware of what was happening and the aircraft, in the dive, went through the sound barrier without his help. This was entirely unintentional on his part and the result of a combination of factors.

Triggered by the discussion at the International Meeting in Munich in 1989, G.Mutke eventually realized what had actually happened on that flight of 9 April 1945. Previously he had been convinced that the damage caused to the aircraft at this extremely high speed was the result of a construction defect, despite experiencing the strange phenomena of loss of control, engine flame-out, etc.

About 4 or 5 years ago, G. Mutke accidentally came across an American produced Me262 handbook published on 10 January 1946 in Wright Patterson. He was amazed to read, on page 13, a report that during test flights with the Me262 shallow dives had been performed, although no vertical dives as in the later flights of Goodlin with the X-1, and that loss of control had been experienced on reaching the speed of sound, and that control had returned once the speed of sound had been exceeded. This phenomenon was known to him in 1945 although he had no explanation for it at that time.

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Me 262 A-1 PILOT'S HANDBOOK

It is interesting to note that the paragraph on page 13 of the "Me 262 A-1 Pilot's Handbook" issued by Headquarters Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio as Report No. F-SU-1111-ND on 10 January 1946, describes accurately G. Mutke's experiences on the flight of 9 April 1945. This must be regarded as strange since the phenomenon of loss of control shortly before or possibly during crossing the sound barrier, and the return of full control after passing through the sound barrier, was at that time known only to him and no-one else unless, of course, they had also successfully broken through the sound barrier.

Undoubtedly the information on page 13 of the Me262 handbook was available to only a small group of people in the USA and they took advantage of the high-level classification being applied to all supersonic research, to conceal this information. The American Me262 handbook was made public in 1978 in an Aviation Publications aircraft manual but G. Mutke only became aware of its existence years later, after he had reported the experiences of his 1945 flight during the International Meeting in Munich. He then attempted to inspect the original version of this handbook in the archives of Wright Patterson in order to confirm that this paragraph on page 13 was in fact present in the Original version from January 1946, even though the document was at that time highly classified and for internal use only.

G.Mutke was very fortunate to obtain a copy of the original document, dated 10 January 1946, from the Wright Patterson archive. He was able to retain this copy since the classification had been removed in 1955 (as confirmed by a stamp on the document). From this evidence he has convinced that the effects described in the paragraph on page 13 could only have originated from the experiences of British or American test pilots in 1945. The personnel in the Wright Patterson archive wished him success with his research but, when he enquired again for additional material to help resolve these conflicts, he received no response whatever. In the last correspondence he was informed by Wright Patterson that they held no additional documentation from this period.

The Americans continued to work on the X-1 leading to the flights of Goodlin on 5 May 1947 and that of Yeager on 14 October 1947. Meanwhile further information has come to light that another pilot, Welch, broke through the sound barrier in a dive with a XP-86 shortly before the flight of Yeager.

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Chalmers H. Goodlin

Col. Chilstrom, the chief of the test pilot team at Wright Patterson at that time, flew the XP-86 and would undoubtedly have been able, in a dive from an appropriate altitude, to exceed Mach 1. He was however, for unexplained reasons, prevented from doing so by General Boyd. However it is probable that this was done so that the first official supersonic flight could be made by Yeager in the X-1. It is also unclear why Goodlin, who made the first rocket-powered flight with the X-1, and who went on to make a total of 26 flights in this aircraft, was suddenly taken off the project and the aircraft was handed over to the military.

This would all suggest that, for whatever reason, the first official supersonic flight was planned and apparently manipulated in order to achieve a pre-defined goal. By suppressing the details, including those related to Yeager's supersonic flight on 14 October 1947, the exact sequence of events of the previous flights was, intentionally one must assume, pushed into the background and forgotten about.

Yeager exceeded Mach 1 officially on 14 October 1947. However a small group of people in the American Air Force must have been aware that Chalmers H. (Slick) Goodlin had flown supersonic 6 months earlier and also that Welch had broken the sound barrier shortly before Yeager. Details of these flights were suppressed since all these activities were kept secret at that time and for some years afterwards.

Thus we arrive at the well-known, but historically inaccurate, sequence of events regarding the first supersonic flights and the identity of the first human being through the sound barrier.

Mach One