Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Chuck Yeager's first supersonic flight, this edition includes a new introduction and new photographs. The book is a history of the struggle to break the sound barrier. Starting with an introduction co-written by astronaut Michael Collins and a prologue relating the fatal attempt by Britain's Geoffrey de Havilland to break the sound barrier in 1946, the book describes: the basic problems of supersonic flight; the story of the Bell X-1 in which "Chuck" Yeager successfully broke the sound barrier in 1947; and the Douglas D-558, the first aircraft to reach twice the speed of sound.