“On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager, then a 24-year-old captain, pushed an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph (1,062 kph) to break the sound barrier, at the time a daunting aviation milestone. Sure, I was apprehensive,’ he said in 1968. ‘When you’re fooling around with something you don’t know much about, there has to be apprehension. But you don’t let that affect your job.” Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97.

+ Video: Chuck Yeager Breaking the Sound Barrier.