Special: Faster Than Sound

Pilots,

Record-breaking accomplishments deserve record-breaking rewards. Right around this time in 1947, U.S. test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly an aircraft at Mach 1.06, successfully breaking the sound barrier and thus landing himself a permanent place in aviation history books. The bonuses that we’re dishing out this weekend in honour of this amazing achievement are equally historic, as we combine three of the most popular boosts into our own super-sonic special! We recommend you set aside plenty of time for your aerial exploits over the coming days, pilots, in order to maximise your gains!

In-Game Offers

Triple XP for the first victory of the day

Climb up your favourite tech tree at near super-sonic rate by taking full advantage of triple experience for your first wins!

50% increased income on all Tier IV and Tier V planes

More can never be enough, can it, pilots? We agree and encourage you to fly as much as possible this weekend to earn more coin than you know what to do with!
 

50% discount on Hangar Slots

Did you follow our advice from the bonus before? If so, you’ll be glad to know that hangars will be at half price for when you decide to expand your plane collection with all the newly-earned cash that you just made!

Special Missions

You don’t have to break the speed of sound to earn yourselves some nice extra consumables. Accomplishing the missions below will do!

History Flashback

Supersonic speed is the rate of travel at which an object exceeds the speed of sound. This speed is reached at approximately 668 mph or 1,235 km/h and is called Mach 1. There are some everyday objects that regularly reach this speed without the means of any sophisticated technology: the tail ends of leather whips for example, when swung, can travel at the speed of sound, producing a sonic boom in the process, which is this cracking sound that they’re known for. Since the beginning of the 20^th century, bullets would also regularly reach supersonic speed at muzzle velocity. Even before that, some dinosaurs are said to have been able to flick their tails at supersonic speeds to produce this intimidating boom sound to scare off opponents.

More specifically for aircraft, propellers on early planes would sometimes reach supersonic speeds, but it took a while before the first manned aircraft was actually able to move at this velocity. The problem was the phenomenon of the so-called “Sound Barrier”. When coming close to supersonic speed (transonic speed) there used to be observable increase in drag, which made it seem to pilots and engineers like achieving supersonic speed was impossible. To overcome the undesirable disruptive shock waves and turbulence, stronger engines were required. The problem was that conventional piston-driven engines would have to become bigger (and thus heavier) in size in order to create the necessary thrust, which in turn made them unable to reach the desired speed advantage to break the barrier.

Jet engines with their superior thrust-to-weight ratio seemed much more fit for this task and experiments began as early as 1942. By the end of the next year, unmanned V-2 missiles used to reach Mach 4 during their final descent on a regular basis. In terms of manned aircraft, there were multiple claims from both German and British pilots to have inadvertently reached Mach 1 in descent (sometimes even on propeller aircraft!) during the latter years of WWII.

However, the first confirmed flight of a manned aircraft happened only on 14 October 1947 when U.S. test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager reached Mach 1.06 on his modified Bell X-1 jet with the name “Glamorous Glennis”. The first woman to ever break the sound barrier was Jackie Cochran on 18 May 1953 in a Sabre with Yeager as her wingman. Since then, aircraft have evolved significantly, leading to the development of modern jet fighters of which most are able to reach multiple Mach at top speed.

Super-sonic speed ahead, pilots!