In this article we study Sobolev metrics of order one on diffeomorphism groups on the real line. We prove that the space \(\operatorname{Diff}_{1}(\mathbb R)\) equipped with the homogenous Sobolev metric of order one is a flat space in the sense of Riemannian geometry, as it is isometric to an open subset of a mapping space equipped with the flat \(L^2\)-metric. Here \(\operatorname{Diff}_{1}(\mathbb R)\) denotes the extension of the group of all either compactly supported, rapidly decreasing or \(H^\infty\)-diffeomorphisms, that allows for a shift towards infinity. In particular this result provides an analytic solution formula for the corresponding geodesic equation, the non-periodic Hunter-Saxton equation. In addition we show that one can obtain a similar result for the two-component Hunter-Saxton equation and discuss the case of the non-homogenous Sobolev one metric which is related to the Camassa-Holm equation.