The Deadly Race to Supersonic Flight

“Boeing - mistake” 😂😂😂

22:25 Boeing (mistake) 😂 That was so unexpected ma

Coldfusion, Polymatter , Wendover productions, real engineering, OBF, Caspian report and reallifelore are literally the best channels to ever exist on YouTube. Edit : yeah, i forgot to mention lemmino and Kento Bento

As a tech guy, I really love all of the ColdFusion videos, and as a pilot, this one is particularly close to my heart!

When asked about Concorde NASA said it was easier to get to space than develop Supersonic Flight for the public to use

When I was a kid my grandma lived in the desert in Barstow and we would hear those Sonic booms almost daily. They would rattle the walls in her little trailer house. When I was 10 years old it was incredible!

Sorry to nitpick but at 4:30 you somewhat imply that XF-84H "Thunderscreech" was an early attempt at supersonic flight before jets. But Thunderscreech first flew in 1955 almost a decade after F-86 and Bell X-1 both jet and rocket powered aircrafts achived supersonic speeds. Around 1955-56 early YF-104 were already reaching mach 2.2 speeds.

There is a massive omission in the 'documentary'. What is missing is exactly what the Americans learned from Miles Aviation. The answer is simple. As an aircraft approaches supersonic speed, the air flowing over the control surfaces, the ailerons and elevators, begins to establish pressure fronts that move back along the wings surface. These fronts do not advance at the same speed, so when they pass where the ailerons or elevator hinges are positioned, the surface pressure can be very different above and below the control surface. This change in pressure result in the control surfaces moving with such force a pilot cannot withstand the pressure and the aircraft can go out of control and possibly break up due to the violent oscillation set up by the uncontrollable surface pressure. The British had learned this and had built 'fully flying' control surfaces to replace the traditional elevators, which are much more susceptible to the problem. The Americans quickly changed the design of the Bell X-1 to have fully flying elevators mounted on the vertical stabilizer fin. You can see this in the videos. The earlier glide and low speed flight aircraft clearly have traditional elevators, the hinges being clearly visible. The later ones do not. If you look closely, you can see the plate against the vertical fin, to which the 'fully flying' control surface is mounted. The plate rotates and this causes the 'fully flying' wing to rotate with it. It is ironic that the X-1 in the museum may be the one that Yeager broke the sound barrier in, but it has either been modified back to the original configuration, with elevators hinging on the fixed horizontal stabilizer, or it is not the correct airframe but a substitute, hiding the crime of stealing British technology. What is also lame about the Yeager record was the use of a rocket motor. First small ones and then ever larger and more powerful ones. The delays that hurt Miles Aviation was the development of the British jet engines. The first flights were made with a less powerful substitute when the planned engine was not ready in time. Once the larger engine became available, Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown quickly proved the Miles M52 was easily able to exceed the speed of sound, but using a British jet engine. This was something the "X" series of aircraft were not able to accomplish for years, despite the British still, stupidly in my opinion, sharing jet engine technology with the US companies that began building jet engines under a "free" license from Churchill!

(Detailed comment) This video skipped three vital FACTS. 1) Tupolev DID steal most of Concorde's plans. 2) There is no mention of the Ogival Delta Wing that made Concorde fast and more importantly smooth through the sound barrier. 3) AIRBUS was the response to the behaviour of both America and the Soviet Union in this era by European nations, who grew sick of the depravity of companies like Boeing, and just how far they would go for a monopoly on success. Sound eerily familiar still today? Now modern purveyors of sonic flight have a lie to get around with the public and experts that still live. After destroying Concorde's innovation with lies (time would have made engines quieter, more fuel efficient, whilst safety would have only improved anyway), the myth of 'dangerous' sonic booms will plague any company trying to go back in time to undo the sheer injustice that Britain faced throughout the twentieth century. Theft and espionage built Boeing, Tupolev and others into national giants. The only channel that has been truly 'diplomatic' on this subject so far was Mentour Pilot. Airbus is granted to us through Karma, as is the downfall of Boeing. They deserve all they get. I want to see any real evidence of the 'harm' of sonic booms, when people were told anything from seizures and vomiting, to building damage. I have seen hundreds of videos on this topic, and yet I am yet to see a single one that documents evidence of this. Come on Coldfusion, your channel is better than this. Everything I have stated is also public knowledge, except the conspiracy to make sure the Boeing 747 was not touched in her lifetime by supersonic flight. (The U.S redacts uncomfortable truth). As I began, it's more than coincidence that now that aircraft's life has ended, people can't move fast enough to revisit supersonic travel again. OR is it because Boeing no longer holds such power over the American government to stop it?? The truth is always out there.

The Republic XF-84H Thunderscreech, while an interesting and unusual airplane, was developed and built well after the Bell X-1 had crossed the sound barrier. It was also designed as a carrier based aircraft with no requirement for a catapult. The way it is placed in the video makes it sound like its design goal was breaking the sound barrier, which it wasn't.

Getting "Theranos" vibes from all those companies towards the end of the video.

Living in LA and hearing the sonic boom as the shuttle would come in to land at Edwards was quite the experience - we all thought it would be common yet now it is gone never to be heard again. Similarly I can recall passing though Heathrow back in the day where Concorde had flights pretty much daily - the sound of that thing taking off was insane 😎😎😎

My Grandfather flew with Sir Charles Kingsford Smith when he was about 12 years old in the Southern Cross. He later went on to become a mechanic working for Qantas and Ansett. As a child in the late 1970s I remember going to someone’s house in Sydney who was a family friend who had also worked in the airlines. He had two huge concord models in a collection of models - each about 1.5 - 2 metres long. They were old and dusty but still in relatively good shape. They were on stands and looked like the sort of thing you’d see in a museum. They had the branding of Qantas on them, flying kangaroo on the tails and all. Turned out the back story was Qantas had committed to purchasing Concords in Australia due to our vast country and long distance between cities. However Boeing rushed in and scuttled the contract by underselling Concord at the 11th hour. The 747 was much loader and slower, but could carry many more passengers. The was a lot of public and political pushback about the sonic boom so in the end it was an easy decision. Both the concord and 747 were released in 1969 so the race was on to get fleet sales. The first 747 flew in Australia in 1971… the concord then flew to Sydney in 1972 as part of their global sales tour, coming in from Darwin in just 2 hours (the same flight still takes over 4 hours today)… almost in a ‘Look at what you missed out on’ type of moment. But the horse had bolted and rest is history... So the concord models had been destined for the bin, had been rescued and ended up at this suburban house in Sydney. I wonder where they are today? Australian aviation history!

I have had the Greatest honor to meet several of these fearless pilots. General Yeager. Scott Crossfield. Al White.

The reason why we gave up to commercial supersonic flight is because internet became better and there was no need for as much "IN PERSON" meeting. And thus flight time isn't a lost time anymore. Plus it's super inefficient.

I really love these longer, more in-depth videos. I really hope you have the time/ability to keep making them in the future :)

Afrer bruising my ribs and recovering from coughing... i could not imagine the pain that dude went through to clench for g forces and shunt blood around the body. What a G.

Amazing work as always, thank you Dagogo!

Man do you ever make a video that isn't entertaining and educating?? Best content on Youtube!

Fun fact about the SR-71: Mach 3.2 is only the unclassified top speed of the plane. There is much unofficial talk that it can go much faster. An SR-71 pilot I met on a museum tour was very cagey about the fastest he'd ever flown. Additionally, despite the fact that the planes are retired, not all aspects of its design have been declassified. Bonus fact: due to thermal expansion when it was at speed, the SR-71 is built with gaps in its body and wings. The plane had to be fueled directely on the runway because it would leak jet fuel until it reached an appreciable portion of the speed of sound and the gaps closed up.