Image Gallery: Breaking the Sound Barrier

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Mach Speed and More

(Image credit: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer)

An F/A-18 Hornet, assigned to the "Bulls" of Strike Fighter Squadron Thirty Seven (VFA-37) performs a sonic boom by breaking the sound barrier during a Friends and Family Day Cruise aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).

Mach Speed and More

(Image credit: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Justin S. Osborne.)

An F-14B Tomcat assigned to the “Swordsmen” of Fighter Squadron Thirty Seven (VF-32) reaches the sound barrier during a low altitude super sonic fly by, during an air wing flight demonstration for the crew aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Truman and Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) are currently deployed conducting combat missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the multinational coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and end the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Mach Speed and More

(Image credit: Courtesy Air Force Test Center History Office)

Chuck Yeager and the X-1 research plane that broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947. It can be seen today at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.