rl@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Robert Langridge%CGL) (07/14/85)
Re: My previous posting on "Yeager" by Yeager and Janos (Bantam NY $17.95)
Oops! The following very vivid description of high-speed precision flying,
should be credited to Pancho BARNES (not Carter - where did I get that from?).
May she Rest in Peace.
"...these two can fly right up your ass and tickle your right eyeball,
and you would never know why you were farting shockwaves".
(referring to Yeager and Hoover - the X-1 prime and back-up pilots)
While I am in postnews here are a couple more quotes (if you think I am
enjoying the book you are so right):
An F-84 made an emergency landing at a small strip when it ran out of fuel.
Jack Ridley was flight engineer on the X-1, Caltech grad and first
class test pilot himself. Yeager's opinion of Ridley is clear:
"[the F-84 needed]...a longer runway to take off again with a full load of
fuel aboard. So Jack said to me, "Come on, let's go out there and see what
we can do about it." I can still see him standing next to that jet on that
small runway, working his slide rule. He calculated how much fuel we'd
need to get the jet back to Luke [Air Force Base], then he carefully paced
off the exact spot where I should fire jet boosters to lift off, driving
in a stake at that point. He said, "I've given you ten feet of runway to
spare. That should be plenty." A crew brought in the boosters and the fuel,
and I took off, fired the boosters and was airborne with ten feet to spare.
After that, if Jack had told me, "No sweat, Chuck, I've left you three inches,"
that would've been fine by me."
At Gen Yeagers retirement:
"It was a typical Yeager crowd, fighter pilots, test pilots, a few generals,
and a couple of millionaires, sheepherders and drunks."
--|--
*~~~~~~~~\bob/~~~~~~~~*
^ ^
Bob Langridge ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!rl (UUCP)
Computer Graphics Laboratory
926 Medical Sciences rl@berkeley (ARPA)
University of California
San Francisco CA 94143 Phone: +1 415 666 2630