U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for October 14

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14: FLYING RECORDS

Profile America — Friday, October 14th.  Two aircraft speed records were set on this date in the past.  In 1922, Lieutenant Lester Maitland in a Curtiss Pursuit plane  was the first to fly 200 miles an hour.  Then in 1947, Air Force Major Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound for the first time, reaching just over 750 miles an hour.  With the retirement of the Concorde in 2003, there are no more supersonic passenger airliners in operation.  However, the more than 700 million air passengers who fly in the U.S. annually, mostly travel on airliners at up to 85 percent of the speed of sound, somewhere between 550 and 600 miles an hour.  You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.

Sources:  Kane's Famous First Facts, 1448, 1468

Chase's Calendar of Events 2011, p. 517

Statistical Abstract of the United States 2011, t. 1072

Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).  

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau