On October 14, 1947, then Air Force Captain Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in his Bell X-1, in aircraft #46-062, which he named Glamorous Glennis, in tribute to his wife. He reached a speed of 1,127 kilometers (700 miles) per hour, or Mach 1.06, at an altitude of 13,000 meters (43,000 feet).

Air-launched at an altitude of 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) from the bomb bay of a Boeing B-29, the X-1 used its rocket engine to climb to its test altitude. The Bell X-1 flew a total of 78 times, and on March 26, 1948, with Yeager at the controls, it attained a speed of 1,540 kilometers (957 miles) per hour, Mach 1.45, at an altitude of 21,900 meters (71,900 feet). This was the highest velocity and altitude reached by a manned airplane up to that time.

Fast forward about 36 years to August 05, 1983. On this day, Brigadier General Chuck Yeager became the 335th person to have the joy and privilege of taking a ride in what has to be the one of the most incredible airplanes ever to take to the air; the Lockheed built and designed SR-71 Blackbird. General Yeager was issued “Mach 3+” card number 405, the 335th person to either fly, or ride in the Blackbird as part of a very exclusive of men and women that had flown to as high as 85,000 feet at an average speed of just around 2,150 miles per hour, or Mach 3+.

There have been 852 persons that have gone to space on NASA’s fleet of Space Shuttles versus 402 that flew in the SR-71 family of Blackbirds. Plus all of the Soviet/Russian’s Soyuz, the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury plus now the Chinese astronauts.