Word: chucked
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Ahead. Colonel Boyd believes that Chuck has done just about enough test flying, but he hasn't the heart to tear him away from his beloved X-1. There is still work to be done with the little orange airplane, and it is an open secret that soon a greatly improved model will be ready...
...ninth mission, Chuck and his Glamourous Glennis of that day were shot down by three Messerschmitts over occupied France. After bailing out with a leg wound, he spotted an old Frenchman, chopping wood, who looked trustworthy. Chuck introduced himself in West Virginia English. The Frenchman put him in touch with the underground, which smuggled him by painful night marches over the Spanish border. Franco's Spaniards put Chuck and some pals in jail...
Part of the Bargain. He was not a prisoner long. The Spaniards had neglected to take away his escape kit, which contained a small, highly tempered saw. "The bars in that jail were brass," Chuck says. "The saw ate right through them." He and his pals "fooled around Spain for a while, swiping chickens." Then the British gathered them up and forwarded them to England. "The British fed us good," says Chuck, "I gained 25 pounds." Right off, he shot down five Germans...
Back from the wars, Chuck married Glennis in Hamlin. As a shot-down man, he just about had his choice of jobs in the Air Force. He tried instructing for a while, but found it dull. Then he got to Wright Field as a flight test pilot. After watching him do the most exacting tests (like landing jet fighters "hard"), Colonel Boyd gave him the X-1 project, which all ambitious test pilots wanted. "Chuck is always cool," says Colonel Boyd. "He never gets excited, and he flies like part of the airplane...
...Chuck and brunette Glennis live in an airy desert house that is only a short drive from Muroc. They have three children. Donald, 3, has reached the shy stage, but Michael, 2, climbs all over visitors. Sharon Christine, 14 weeks, shows early signs, thinks proud Chuck Yeager, of developing into a pretty girl. What does Glennis think of his special kind of flying? Says Chuck: "I was flying when she married me. It was part of the bargain...