It's October 14, 1947, 15,000 feet above the Mojave Desert.

24-year-old Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager sits on a metal box inside a B-29 bomber ignoring the safety belt

requirement. A bomb of turbulent sends pain shooting through his torso. Two nights ago, he broke a few

ribs while horseback riding, and if his superiors had discovered the injury, he would have been

grounded. But Yeager was not about to miss this opportunity. He's going to attempt

the fastest flight in human history. In the B-29's Bomb Bay is a small orange rocket plane, the Bell X-1.

For months, Yeager and a team of engineers have pushed this experimental aircraft closer and closer

to supersonic flight,

and today they will attempt to break through the invisible threshold marking the speed of sound.

Many believe it's impossible. Plains have fallen apart, and pilots have been killed just approaching such speed.

But Yeager is determined that today is going to be different.

At 20,000 feet, the B-29 levels off,

and Yeager makes his way to the Bomb Bay.

He climbs down a small steel ladder, and below him,

the X-1 dangles from his heavy shackle in the freezing wind.

Getting into the tiny cockpit on a good day is exhausting, but with broken ribs, every move is torturous.

Yeager grips the doorframe with his left hand and swings himself feet first toward the narrow opening.

One terrifying moment, he suspended between the ladder and the plane with nothing but sky beneath it.

But making it inside, Yeager settles in as the B-29 dives, accelerating to reach launch speed.

Then comes the countdown over the radio.

For a moment, the X-1 is in free fall, and Yeager feels the weightlessness in his stomach.

Then he ignites the riots.

...