Breaking Barriers
As Yeager throttled the plane ever faster, approaching and then passing 500 and then 600 miles per hour, the Bell X-1 began to shake and rattle on the inside.
Yeager’s face had that focused, determined look, but there was reason for concern.
It was October 14, 1947. Every other pilot who had attempted this had failed, and many people believed sound was like a physical wall, and that exceeding it would lead to catastrophic consequences.
From their perspective, test pilots reported experiencing violent shaking, control loss, and some even watched one of their wings destroyed as they approached 767 miles per hour—Mach One.
Collectively, these experiences fueled the myth of a near-impossible "barrier" preventing further advancement.
As Yeager neared the speed of sound, the aircraft experienced severe buffeting, a violent shaking caused by shock waves that form at very high speeds. Many in the aviation community speculated that these waves would, at best, cause a pilot to lose control; at worst, they feared that the plane would disintegrate.
Nobody knew for sure until October 14, 1947.
After being dropped from a B-29 Superfortress at a very high altitude, and already at a couple hundred miles per hour, Yeager piloted the X-1 with an expert touch, pushing the aircraft closer and closer to the sound barrier.
Bouncing and rocking were higher than before now, and increasing with every additional mile per hour of speed.
Yeager’s grim determination pushed the X-1 right past that barrier, eclipsing Mach 1 for the first time. The instant the aircraft was flying faster than sound through the air, it was as though a switch was flipped. The X-1 was suddenly very quiet and calm on the inside. Yeager had shown that supersonic flight was possible, opening the door for countless space flights and military operations over the decades since.
When Yeager came out on the other side of this barrier, he found resistance falling away, and a peaceful journey home.
Today, let’s look briefly at a few other folks who broke through different types of barriers.
Nelson Mandela's metaphorical X-1 was the struggle against an entrenched system of racial segregation. And, just like Chuck Yeager's perilous journey through the sound barrier, Nelson Mandela's path to dismantle apartheid in South Africa was fraught with turbulence.
In 1962, the South African government, intent on silencing the voices calling for change, charged Mandela with sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the state. His arrest was not just an attempt to imprison a man but to bury the ideal of freedom and equality he represented.
Mandela's trial captured the world's attention, shining a light on the brutal realities of apartheid, but he was convicted anyway, and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The cold, damp prison was Mandela’s X-1, and it lasted a lot longer than Yeager’s test flight—27 years in total.
Within these walls, Mandela faced the challenge of physical isolation from his community, but he also set pen to paper, honing his vision for a post-Apartheid state. He engaged in clandestine discussions with prison officials, secretly drafted memos, and letters that would find their way beyond the prison's bars, laying the groundwork for dialogue and reconciliation.
Mandela’s release in 1990 heralded the beginning of a new chapter for South Africa, marked by intense negotiations to dismantle the institutionalized racism that had divided the nation. Although the ensuing negotiations were fraught with challenges—including the very real threat of civil war—Mandela's commitment to peace and reconciliation steered the nation toward a new dawn.
After breaking through the color barrier, Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa’s first ever Black president—a testament to the power of forgiveness, and the possibility of a peaceful coexistence after decades of strife.
Just like with Yeager, Mandela had to go through hell to break the barrier. Like Mandela, once he got through that barrier, he found things to be calmer on the other side.
Now it’s your turn! Who has broken through a barrier in history, whether physical, social, or something else? What sorts of barriers are out there to be broken today?
I've broken many a barrier during my days of playing Arkanoid. But things don't get calm on the other side. No sir. Level 2 just has even more barriers!
There are so many barriers that have been broken or stand to be broken that it’s sometimes hard to see them.
What’s also interesting is that once something is broken, or a new standard is set, most of us rarely look back to reflect on the time when it wasn’t. We take it for granted, forget all the work it took to get there. Unless perhaps it’s threatened again.