August 6, 1947
Bell X-1 inflight – Captain Yeager pilot 1947
After undergoing training on the X-1, then called the XS-1, and all of its systems at Muroc Army Air Base, CA (later – September 18, 1947 Edwards Air Force Base), he went up for his first unpowered flight, and to everyone’s surprise, almost immediately after dropping from the B-29, he nonchalantly performed a series of slow rolls.
1997:: General Chuck Yeager’s response:
“Well, that’s, that’s a fighter pilot. To me, you know, that’s the way I was trained and upside down or right side up. Doesn’t make any difference to a fighter pilot. That’s the way you lived, you know, and I just wanted to see what the airplane could roll like. It felt – it was beautiful. What a neat airplane to fly. ”
“It’s hard to explain to people how you can have confidence or faith in a piece of machinery but when you work with it and you have a feel for machinery, it, I had a, like the X-1. I knew the airplane intimately and I figured it wouldn’t, you know, bite me without giving me some sort of warning.
Glennis said the only “other woman” she ever had to worry about was machinery, especially certain aircraft like the Bell XS-1