Word: bridgeman
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Impressive Calm. The man who does this sort of job over & over again is 36 and bald. Bill Bridgeman has bright blue eyes, which seem more intent because of deep little airman's creases spraying out from them across his bronzed cheeks. He stands 6 ft. 1½ in. tall, and has the big-shouldered build of a lifeguard. (During his college vacations he did serve as a lifeguard at Santa Monica beach, where lifeguarding is ranked among the decorative arts...
...Navy wings and commission in October 1941, and was shipped to Pearl Harbor. His skipper made him officer of the day for Sunday, Dec. 7, with the remark that "nothing happens here on Sunday." The something that happened that Sunday-the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor-allowed Ensign Bridgeman to distinguish himself in the only possible way that day by not getting wounded...
...Dear Franklin . . ." After three months of brooding and flying a hospital bed, Ensign Bridgeman wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, beginning "Dear Franklin . . ." and demanded transfer to an active job. He told his secret to an admiral's wife who did welfare work in the hospital. She turned white and ran to the commanding admiral of the San Francisco Naval District. In old-line Navy custom, such conduct by an ensign was almost as shocking as mutiny...
...regretted the decision. In 60 dangerous but splendidly executed flights, Pilot Bridgeman flew the Skyrocket faster and higher than any other plane has flown. He met new perils of the air, e.g., "supersonic yaw" and heating, and brought the Skyrocket back again & again to its base. Death often brushed his shoulders, but the Skyrocket is still intact, and it has accumulated enough data about high-speed flying to keep designers figuring for years...
...give lift at low speed, they stir up too much drag. So the tiny wings of the X3, designed for efficiency and minimum drag at very high speed, make the ship unstable and cranky when it is flying below the speed of sound. This is one reason why Bill Bridgeman quietly denounced the X-3 as a "nasty little beast." When he does, one of the Douglas designers retorts: "What do you expect? The X-3 wasn't built to hover...