Fifty-two years ago this week, the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" became the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Piloted by Air Force Capt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, the X-1 was flown through the much talked about sound barrier at a speed of over 700 miles per hour shattering the notion that faster-than-sound flight was technically unfeasible.

Additional flights by Yeager pushed the operating envelope to 957 miles per hour, Mach 1.45 at 71,9000 feet, which was the highest and fastest anybody had flown up to that time.

Yeager christened the plane "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife, a tradition common among World War II fighter pilots.