Pancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman in the World, and the Happy Bottom Riding Club at the Edge of the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes became the fastest woman in the world and built the desert club at the heart of the supersonic age.
TaildraggerEdwards Air Force Base
Pancho Barnes, the Happy Bottom Riding Club, and the Fastest Woman in the World Who Poured the Drinks for the Men Who Broke the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes, the fastest woman alive in 1930, built the desert club where test pilots gathered before breaking the sound barrier.
TaildraggerEnterprise's First Free Flight, August Twelfth, Nineteen Seventy-Seven, the Day a Wingless-Looking Brick Fell Off the Back of a Boeing Seven Forty-Seven and Glided Home to a Dry Lakebed
On August 12, 1977, Space Shuttle Enterprise made its first free flight, proving a pilot could glide an orbiter to a landing.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes, the Happy Bottom Riding Club, and the Desert Bar Where Every Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier Learned to Fly Low
The story of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, the desert bar where sound-barrier test pilots learned to be human.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman in the World Who Built the Happy Bottom Riding Club and Fed the Men Who Broke the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes went from fastest woman alive to running the desert club where test pilots celebrated breaking the sound barrier.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes, the Fastest Woman on Earth, and the Happy Bottom Riding Club at the Edge of the Sound Barrier
How Pancho Barnes became the fastest woman on earth and built the desert club where test pilots broke the sound barrier.
TaildraggerThe B-21 Raider Speed Brake and What Flying Wing Aerodynamics Forces You to Invent
Test photos of the B-21 Raider reveal a speed brake design that appears decoupled from yaw control - a meaningful departure from the B-2 Spirit's approach.
TowerThe North American F-hundred Super Sabre and the first production fighter to go supersonic in level flight on May twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty-three
The F-100 Super Sabre became the first production fighter to exceed Mach 1 in level flight on May 25, 1953, changing military aviation forever.
TaildraggerThe XB-70 Valkyrie mid-air collision and the photo shoot that killed two pilots at Mach three's doorstep
The 1968 XB-70 Valkyrie mid-air collision killed two pilots during a routine GE publicity photo shoot over the Mojave Desert.
TaildraggerPancho Barnes and the fastest woman alive who built a desert saloon for test pilots
Pancho Barnes broke speed records, organized Hollywood stunt pilots, and built the legendary bar where test pilots gathered after breaking the sound barrier.
TaildraggerThe five longest US military runways and why they need all that concrete
The five longest US military runways stretch over two miles each, built for space shuttles, nuclear bombers, and experimental aircraft.
TowerChuck Yeager and the broken ribs that almost kept him from breaking the sound barrier
How Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, with two broken ribs and a nine-inch piece of broom handle.
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