Brother Lawrence Bell was the head of the Bell Aircraft Corporation, one of whose aircraft, the X-1, piloted by Captain Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager, famously broke the Sound Barrier in level flight on 14 October 1947.
Subsequent Bell aircraft developments went on to exceed Mach 6.72 or 2,021 metres per second (7,273Km/h – 4,519mph), a feat achieved by the X-15A-2 on 28 June 1964 by test pilot Pete Knight. NASA astronaut and the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, was also a Bell X-15 pilot.