Issued on October 14, 1997, this 32-cent stamp marks the golden anniversary of a milestone in aviation: the breaking of the sound barrier. The stamp depicts the Bell X-1, a rocket-powered experimental aircraft, soaring high above the Earth. On October 14, 1947, Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager piloted this aircraft, which he had named "Glamorous Glennis" after his wife, to a speed of Mach 1.06 (about 700 miles per hour), becoming the first human to officially fly faster than the speed of sound. The historic flight occurred over the Mojave Desert at an altitude of 43,000 feet, after the X-1 was dropped from the bomb bay of a B-29 Superfortress. The location of this secret test flight was Muroc Army Air Field, which later became Edwards Air Force Base, a name synonymous with cutting-edge flight research. The stamp's design, with the X-1 set against the dark blue of the upper atmosphere, captures the essence of this leap into the unknown. Yeager's flight was not just a record-breaking event; it was a crucial step in aeronautical engineering, providing invaluable data that would inform the design of future high-performance aircraft and spacecraft.