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Aviation Speed Records

October 14, 2012

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Profile America -- Sunday, October 14th. Speed was the name of the game on this date in the past, with the setting of two milestone aviation records. On this date in 1922, Lieutenant Lester Maitland flew a Curtiss Pursuit plane just over 216 miles an hour -- the first to fly faster than 200. Exactly 25 years later, Air Force Major Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound for the first time, reaching 700 miles an hour. Today, the X-1 is one of the premier exhibits at the National Air and Space Museum on the mall at Washington, D.C. The museum is visited by many of the nearly 2 million oversees tourists who come to the city annually. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2012, p. 507
Kane's Famous First Facts, 1448, 1468
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1261
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012edition.html