January 25, 1946, Bell test pilot Jack Woolams makes the first of ten glide flights in the Bell X-1 at Pinecastle Army Airfield, Florida. Woolams was scheduled to perform all flight testing of the X-1 and had he not been killed later that year while practicing for the Cleveland Air Races he probably would have been the first man to exceed the speed of sound instead of Chuck Yeager.
Read more at https://www.thisdayinaviation. com/19-january-1946/