Word: bridgeman
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Dressed in a "blast suit," Test Pilot Bridgeman, the human star of the show, got down from a green Ford and walked lithely toward the X3, the mechanical star. Technicians swarmed over the aircraft, giving it a last check. A flight surgeon stopped Bridgeman, examined him closely to make sure he was O.K. Both plane and man, were pronounced ready for flight...
...devils of the air that claw at the untried plane, shake it, spin it, hammer it, try to tear it to ribbons. Some tests are extra tense. The maiden flight of the X-3 a few months ago was one of the touchiest in aviation history. The pilot: Bill Bridgeman, a husky, clear-eyed airman who had already flown faster (1,238 m.p.h.) and higher (79,494 ft.) than any other...
Wickedly Fast. The out-of-this-world design of Bill Bridgeman's new airplane would scare the daylights out of the ordinary pilot. The X-3 has a long, droopy nose that looks as if it had softened and wilted slightly. High and far to the rear juts a monstrous tail. The fuselage has just enough room for two big jet engines, whose bulky, cylindrical shapes bulge the skin outward. The plane is much bigger than a standard fighter, and extremely heavy for its size: in engineers' lingo it has a prodigiously high "solidarity factor...
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...
Test Pilot Bill Bridgeman added one other bit of pertinent information: even at his top speed he had needed no special cooling equipment. Said he: "The plane is soaked in cold at 65° below zero [F.], while the B-29 [from which the Skyrocket is dropped] cruises at an altitude of 35,000 ft. So far that has been all the air conditioning I've needed...