Word: bridgeman
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...designer and the pilot of the world's fastest airplane, the rocket-pushed Douglas Skyrocket, loosened up a little last week and told a few new facts about how the plane behaves. High above the speed of sound, said Designer Ed Heinemann and Pilot Bill Bridgeman, there is a new peril of the sky: "supersonic...
...rocket flight in the Skyrocket, says Pilot Bridgeman, starts out peacefully enough. When the plane is dropped from its mother B-29 at 35,000 ft., there is a gentle sensation like going down in an elevator. When Bill "kicks on" his rocket motors, he feels a great push of acceleration but no sensation of speed. Below the speed of sound, the Skyrocket "flies like a little queen," responds sensitively to his lightest touch...
With a dreadful swooping, plunging motion the plane swung all over the sky. Its oscillations were so quick that Bridgeman's trained reactions could not keep up with them. If he tried to correct one of the violent swings, he might act a trifle too late and make the next one worse. While the ship zigzagged out of control almost 15 miles above the earth, Bill timed himself to catch every third or fourth oscillation. "It didn't take muscle, he says, "it took concentration. I never concentrated so hard in my life...
...When Bridgeman landed on Muroc Dry Lake (at 180 m.p.h.), his work with the Skyrocket was done. She had passed her last test and would now be turned over to the Navy and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for research. He is sorry that he must leave her. "I believe she can go much higher," he said affectionately, "and fly much faster...
...Douglas hangar is a new, untested, and even more powerful rocket plane, the X3. Bridgeman looks forward to coaxing this new favorite 20 miles above the earth...