Word: bridgeman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Phantom Crew. The cramped cockpit of the X-3 has no room for anyone except Bill Bridgeman, but the tense men watching the oscilloscopes can perform all the duties of a well-trained crew. They bend electronically over Bridgeman's shoulders, watch banks of instruments that he would have no time to glance at. They warn him when some unfelt danger is still small, but growing...
...scopes, the men in the crowded trailer feel warm identification with the man in the air. They leave the ground when he does, hurtle through the sky in his ungentled airplane. Their hearts skip a beat when his does-and sometimes before. Their muscles tense with his. Bill Bridgeman feels the same intimate way about his phantom crew miles away on the ground. "They're right with me," he says, "watching every little thing. I don't even have to ask them. They'll tell me if any thing's wrong...
...think you should bring it back," one of them warned Bridgeman...
...Bridgeman: "You want me to bring it home...
Trailer: "Right." Bill headed for the field. Blind Landing. Then came the most dangerous part of the flight. The X-3 lands well above 200 m.p.h., and its little, faired-in windows give its pilot almost no view of the ground as it flashes below. When Bill Bridgeman squared away and headed on a straight-in approach into Muroc, he cautiously opened his landing-gear doors. They buffeted alarmingly. Then he lowered his wheels. The X-3 obviously didn't like...