I was an Air Traffic Controller in the tower when this all happened. My wife and I were invited to the huge celebration party with all the celebs and bigwigs in LA. We must have been the youngest ones there. Stan Barrett was presented with this set of beautiful brass balls on a nice wooden base. I was stationed there from 79-81. The things I saw!! Enterprise and Columbia space shuttles, cruise missiles, fly by wire tests, etc..

As a kid growing up in the 70's, this stuff fascinated me. Turns out, it still does.

I’m glad that this attempt has not be forgotten. I watched it on television when it took place.

This is solid tv gold. What it was like before cable. Very little 1970's tape exists due to costs and bulk erasing.

Real hero's don't play with a ball, they put there lives on the line in an effort to do something extraordinary.

Best use of beer profits ever.

I remember hearing about this as it was happening but this is the first time that I've got to actually watch any of the video of it. "AWESOME" is the only word that I can come up with to describe this monumental project. Thanks so much for putting this on KZfaq for us to watch.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

Whether Stan Barrett broke the barrier or not , he certainly put on the best show . Every time i watch this , when that Sidewinder kicks in , it gives a shiver down my spine ! This was the era of Evel Knievel , when a Dare Devil truly put his life on the line , and did it for America or Britain and for the Hell of it !

Wow! Amazing engineering, guts, patience and stick-to-it-tiveness. Wonderful documentary. Thank you.

We were there, my twin and I helped with the project it was built in the backyard of Bill Frederick a next door neighbor of my sister in law. I was attending CSULA at the time Industrial Arts Department. It was lot of fun 1979!

Brock, Hal, Chuck .....God bless them for the history and entertainment, And then to give us cannonball run and smokey and the bandit and all the amazing stunts and records and bones broken.

I had the pleasure of meeting Gen. Yeager twice here in Nor Cal. First time up in Grass Valley and the 2nd time many years later in Oroville . He was well into his 80s the 2nd time but had a grip when he shook my hand that shocked the hell out of me. There are many 50 year olds that dont have a grip like he did in his late 80s. RIP Gen. RIP

Remarkably comprehensive and informative coverage that really touched on every aspect of the story. Impressive.

regardless of the technicalities of speed records etc, this is truly an inspiring and heart warming story.

What an AWESOME video!and a fitting way to end focusing on the American Flag..God Bless everyone that contributed to this project making an American dream come true!

“In the good ole USA”, fading words now

Absolutely love to watch history as it happens. Thanks for posting 👌🤘💯

"They've got the engine beefed up, track's in good shape, and Stan's ready!" When General Chuck Yeager is that sure and enthusiastic about it, how can you miss? A totally legendary man right there for sure. And, as down to Earth as he was, don't ever forget: GENERAL!

Great video! So nostalgic in an era where men were men and in this instance a bunch of men that were also humble. How refreshing in contrast.

At 36:35 was the Best shot of the Video. I miss being young, Those were the Days, They really were.

Cool project. Congrats to Hal, Stan, and others that try.

Chuck Yeager is the reason every American pilot sounds the same on the radio. Everyone wanted to imitate that calm slow midwestern drawl he had even after declaring a major emergency.

this would make a great movie !!!! someone should do it

This car actually broke the sound barrier for a brief time. It may not have consistently exceeded it. To create a sonic boom the vehicle needs to create a Mach cone which does not happen instantaneously it also depends on the shape of the vehicle and the condition of the atmosphere. The thrust car which is so cool actually lived above Mach 1 long enough to create a boom ( double boom actually..) and a shock wave. NASA and DARPA have created shapes that go supersonic and do not create the shock wave, the N wave. I spent my life in aerospace engineering, this old man will shut up now......

I vaguely remember this. I was 8 years old when I watched this. I was a car nut, but didn't actually understand what was about to happen and what all was involved. But, boy, did I draw my rendition of this car afterwards!

This “Hold My Beer” moment in time is brought to you by Budweiser.

714 miles an hour damn that's fast Has to have absolutely perfect aerodynamics

Great story ! Wish he would have broke mach 1. Good to see old Chuck Yeager, you can tell he was chomping at the bit sitting in the cockpit of that car. Fantastic story thank you for sharing never heard of this gentleman till today May 11th 2020

I miss he 70s. Shit was fun.

Very cool and very fast. I do not remember this but i wish i did. This was a great attempt.Thanks to all who did this.

Hi Jake, Steve Jenkins here….thanks for sharing last night. It was an honor to meet you. I have friends all around the world that are involved in Land Speed racing and was involved in developing a record setting motorcycle…kind of a long story. As aside note pay attention to your grandfathers brother Myron G…in my view they were both apex Index 4 attourneys and that is key to understanding much of what took place…for the record …Jake Sr and His brother Myron were not on my radar till last week.

I was in the black rock in 1997 when the SSC did break the sound barrier and yes one hell of a sonic boom and shock wave!

Plot Twist: The nearby Roswell 'U.F.O' wreckage was actually a previous land-speed attempt. 🤔 🚀Great upload thank you. Stay safe during the madness. 🇬🇧

Wow what a fantastic film and Iconic piece of american history,these television program specials were talked about for weeks by kids in school and adults at work.

It is now the year 2020. I remember watching weekend after weekend and missing many parties to see this moment.

I live on edwards AFB in the 60s , 8 years on that base that's we're I learned motor cross go Air Force 😊

I know there’s so much controversy surrounding this. But I choose to believe that he did it! Reminds me of my childhood.

Im an old dude, 62 but i still think this is fuckn awesome!!!...way back in 1979. i dont suppose that this is very big deal to a lot of the younger folks, now days, like the moon landing...or the SR-71, even..but ill say it again without the explicative, this is awesome!!!! and think about this.... this was done without any...or very little computers!!!!..just the ones that these folks on their shoulders...that is what makes all these accomplishments so fuckn awesome to me.....sorry for my uncontrolled use of explicative....Carry on

Glad I found this video.

"Like a human vibrator" the best moment of this entire video - did he even know what he was saying, did 'vibrator' mean something else in the 70's?

38:20 for the record run. 40:10 'We probably broke the speed of sound.' Thanks for the upload.

What a great video of pure dedication to fulfil his dream. 😊

I was one of the Firefighters out there for this.

He did 739mph, the *Speed of Sound is 762mph* at sea level. Close, but not supersonic.

Stan Barrett the Human Vibrator!!! Ken Squier has a way with words.

REAL AMERICAN HERO'S!!! today we solute you Mr land speed rocket car creator!! Love it man!!!

"Looks like an airplane, without wings"... [Old Man Peabody] Back Movie to the Future circa era 1985

mu = shock cone angle. mu = asin(1 / M). At M = 1.00, mu = 90.00 degrees (normal shock). At just M = 1.01, mu = 81.93 degrees. Shocks in this regime are weak but would still be distinguishable from the rocket exhaust as they sound like a single very, very low frequency thump. If the vehicle only momentarily achieved sonic speed then it IS possible that the point where this occurred was not at the location where a shock cone would have swept the observers. - 40 years in the Skunk Works

No boom! no barrier!

Awesome documentary!

Every records breaker has dedication towards his work, and lot of team work , and scientific study required to achieve new record, that my was real rocket man.

I'm puzzled why there was no mention of a sonic boom? If you truly break the sound barrier, there is always a sonic boom. "We "probably" broke the sound barrier." Probably breaking it and breaking it are two entirely different things. Also, the speed recording equipment had some issues as was acknowledged. Officially and otherwise, he did not conclusively break the sound barrier. Thrust SSC was the first to break the sound barrier officially in 1997.

If you check the official records, this run was never certified. I highly doubt Barrett broke mach 1, because they would have certainly made a big deal, in the film, about hearing the sonic boom (there wasn't one). In contrast, the "ThrustSSC," the first car to actually break the speed of sound (in 1997) was said to have generated a clearly audibie sonic boom and visible shockwave, as it passed "the barrier" and went supersonic.

With all of our modern computers and precision manufacturing capabilities, we still can't create machines as marvelous as this and the Saturn V rockets which were all designed by the human mind with pen and paper.

This video brings back fond memories of the great dare devils like Evel Kenevel and Super Dave Osborne in the "car crusher" stunt. Those were the days.

Chuck Yeager was not an engineer and had no advanced education, he was an excellent pilot ,but that doesn't give him any more credence than some guy on the street .No boom ,no sound barrier it's that simple , they're very loud everyone would have heard it .also the the equipment used by the Airforce is not appropriate for land speed timing and was not even calibrated . The attempt was a very impressive achievement by any standards.

Amazing run and amazing technological achievement to go so fast over the ground, especially in 1979 and I bow to the team and driver involved for their skill and daring to pull this off without injury or loss of life. This should not be forgotten. However, it did not break the speed of sound, which is directly proportional to temperature and the radar returns, the most reliable measurement of velocity on this particular day also registered that the vehicle didn’t go supersonic. Whilst it didn’t go for the land speed record, the team would have surely claimed it if they could. To break records rules have to followed, Thrust SSC was another leap, by another skilled and technologically capable team who built the car with the express intent of claiming the Supersonic Land Speed record which they achieved and still it stands to this day. I would never take away anyone’s achievements, especially concerning something as so audacious as this, but I think the video title is misleading and so would be any claim that the vehicle went supersonic. Close maybe, but not close enough for the claim. Well done to all involved.

The quality of this video is excellent for the time that it was made NOT for 2021

He was the fastest man in history GREAT JOB Stan and Team

Too many people think it is easy to just put a large engine in a light vehicle. Actually the most important thing is the aerodynamics to keep the vehicle on the ground but not too much. Thrust SSC took years to design and build.

"he keeps chewin away at that ole sound barrier" They don't make em like Chuck anymore :/

People don't realize how insanely dangerous this is.

I remember this. Someone on a radio station talked about it. Concluding with, "now maybe he can go and do something worth while".

Things often look easy to those who've never tried them. It's sad to see comments rubbishing the achievements of this amazing privately funded team. Their results did not meet the official LSR requirements, but their work was decades ahead of their contemporaries and produced a ton of data that was useful to those that followed them. I wonder how many youngsters were inspired to enter science and engineering careers which the world desperately needs, in much the same way that the Thrust and Bloodhound SSC teams have promoted STEM. I challenge anyone claiming national pride in any of these PRIVATELY FUNDED projects to put you hand in your pocket to help sponsor one!

This was 40 years ago and they still haven't released the telemetry they claimed proved it broke the sound barrier and the USAF have always refused to acknowledge that their radar showed that ir did. So Whilst I believe it probably exceeded the top speeds of the Blue Flame and Thrust 2, I'm inclined to think it never exceeded 700mph let alone broke the Sound Barrier

WOW. I was 19-20 when this occurred. 44 years ago.

I just love listening to these men speak.

By any measure, I call this 714+ mph run, a major accomplishment. ,,especially being built in some ones back yard. The Thrust SSC was built at 1000 times the cost, twice the developed HP and 8 years later, plus, they broke the speed record at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, at over 3900 feet elevation. Barrett made this run at Rogers Dry Lake at 2275 feet elevation with greater air density ..at relative air temps and humidity. I'm not sure why Barrett and his team didn't take their Sidewinder rocket configuration back to Bonneville, where the elevation is 4665 ft.

15:46 "making stan barrett into a human vibrator" lol

I remember being glued to the TV just waiting for the Sonic Boom !

my right ear loved this

Regardless what the negative comments say, from this side of the pond, I think any attempt on the land speed record shows sound engineering, pushing established limits further into the unknown. Okay, these runs were not within the rules laid down by the regulating body and therefore do not count, but give credit where credit is due.

This did not break the sound barrier Thrust SSC was the first and is still the only supersonic car

Hay buddy, I sure miss are talks we shared in Quartzsite. I really wish I had given you that triple water filter system I have. I’m selling my RV because I’m living in Dade City Florida. I paid cash for a mobile home here and my lot rent is $435 a month. It includes water garbage and lawn maintenance. I kinda wish you were here because you can live very reasonably. Hopefully you continue to feel better and better… sure is good seeing you keep these videos coming. I look forward to seeing them.

I saw this in 79. Thanks

Bloodhound entered the chat.

I remember a rocket car called The Blue Flame

Old Spice commercial! 💛🙏🏼

Was funny when talking to General Yeager at the beginning "well down here at just above sea level the speed of sound is 740 MPH , and up there where I was in the X1 in 1947 the speed of sound was "only" 660 mph ". .... only 660 MPH 😂😂😂😂 ... that was great!! 🙂, when you have General Chuck Yeagers respect your doing something special. So glad Stan didn't get hurt especially when I seen his little girl crying with worry.

Hal Needan was a awesome man....

Love this upload! .....he certainly did NOT break the sound barrier, though.....no shockwaves!

I remember watching this I was only nine years old ..in..1979

Da kann ich mich noch genau erinnern, ich war damals noch ein Schulbub. Jetzt, 41 Jahre später, haben die Bilder nichts von ihrer Faszination eingebüßt. Stan Barrett hat einen Rekord in die Ewigkeit eingemeißelt, man wird sich noch in 1000 Jahren daran erinnern!

He was 30 mph short of speed of sound, they knew that. The simple fact that there was no sonic boom was proof of that.

This was 20 years before Thrust SSC and they were right there at it.

So awesome!!

This is cool. I was one of the Firefighters on standby for this. Sadly, Gratefully, boring.

Amazing 15:50 the human vibrator 🤣👍🏻

"I just lit a ROCKET!".....woody from toy story... Just seeing that acceleration is just mindblowing

*Fantastic!*

That old 280 Z in the background. 👍

The sound barrier is 767mph, so they were about 30mph shy of a sonic boom.

Alot of history at Roger's Dry Lake. EDWARDS AF Base. I salute the souls of discovery

AMAZING-- SIMPLY AMAZING !!!!

When the guy said probably, you know right they're they didn't do it! But hats off to the driver for the attempt, he wasn't exactly slow was he?

Thank you for the Memories. Not just the SOS barrier attempts, but speed attempts in all areas. Plus some of the more common memories like the GM motorhome, Vans and the station wagons. Stan Barrett's name always comes to mind, the other name would be Art Arfons. I have been a pilot since the early 70s. And had my fair share of toys and racing in different areas. From asphalt, mud and boats, too sand, and STOL. But the amount of courage to be strapped into a bullet and rocket into the unknown. Yeah! Not me! How nice it was to see the inclusion of Prayer. Something that disappeared with the so-called political correctness. Now what you hear is incantations. And don't dare mention Jesus Christ. My how times have changed.

TYVM

The Bud Light version quit at 67 mph. It got too scary.

Now they need to try this with a Reliant Robin.