This week in Edwards flight test history Published May 18, 2017 By 412th Test Wing Public Affairs EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- On May 18, 1953, Jacqueline Cochran made two supersonic dives in a Canadian-built (Canadair) F-86E Sabre and became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound. Later that day she flew the same plane over Edwards AFB’s low-level course, a 12-pylon, 100-kilometer track, to a new women’s absolute speed record of 652.552 miles per hour. A chase plane flown by her friend, Maj. Charles “Chuck” Yeager, accompanied her.