Conquering the Sound Barrier

Conquering the sound barrier took multiple years of hard labor and ingenuity. Designers had to create engines suitable for flying at at least transonic speeds, adapt the airframe to the new environment, change the wing shape, and make it durable enough to sustain supersonic loads. Last but not least, the anticipated ‘sonic boom’ needed to eventually go from an achievement to a routine event, and that meant that all the cutting-edge solutions had to be as simple and cheap as possible.