Word: yeager
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...Chuck Yeager could not see much, but he had plenty to do. Swiftly he checked the instruments, tried the controls and adjusted his oxygen mask. Outside he could hear the thunder of the B-29's great engines and feel the vibration as the bomber climbed higher & higher. He felt it wheel on a turn, and heard Major Cardenas' voice on the radio: "Am turning on downwind leg at 21,000 ft." Then the bomber wheeled again. "Am turning on the base leg," said Major Cardenas. "Five minutes to drop time...
...sudden acceleration hit Chuck Yeager like a sledge hammer and the X-1 climbed high at tremendous speed. ("It's like having hold of something by the tail and not daring let go.") At carefully timed intervals he fired the other rockets. Each gave the little orange airplane another mighty push. Chuck didn't hear much noise; he was leaving sound behind...
...Chuck Yeager, Major Cardenas (Chuck's C.O. as well as the pilot who takes the X-1 aloft), and Flight Engineer Jackie Ridley are permanent at Muroc. The X-1 is not a transient project but the Air Force's first "research airplane," and it needs both Muroc's room and its walled-off secrecy. The X-1 was never intended as an "operational airplane"; it is more like a flying wind tunnel. Its big advantage is that its rockets, which produce a thrust of 6,000 Ibs., are not weakened, like "air-breathing" engines, by high...
Supersonic Passes. Smashing speed and altitude records is not the real work of the X-1. It was designed to solve the problem of practical supersonic flying. Chuck Yeager has put it through maneuvers at all speeds within its range. He has dived it under power, rolled it, looped it. He has fired guns above the speed of sound ("getting somewhere," is all he says about that...
...hours. The Fly-Inn is a much-buzzed place. Standing alone on the flat desert with only a few low trees, it invites the dangerous prank that all young pilots play, no matter what the threats of flying field managers or military C.O.s. Chuck Yeager has roared low over the ranch in every sort of airplane, including the fastest jets. When he buzzes the place in a jet plane, the slap from the zipping wing jounces...