The Hell There Ain’t….

General Yeager told me this story July 10, 2013:

Jack Ridley was itching to fly the X-1 after we succeeded in breaking the sound barrier. Finally, when he got his chance, he asked if I would fly chase.

Almost every flight in the X-1 had an issue from electricity going out, to no radio, to the cockpit window fogging up (Dick Frost talked me down to landing- kinda funny, my window was frosted so Dick Frost…).

Almost every flight, a fire warning light came on.

Once Ridley had been dropped from the B-29 and we had flown a few seconds, Ridley comes over the radio quite agitated: “Yeager, there’s a fire warning light on!”

The cockpit was pure nitrogen, no oxygen, so no fuel for fire, so I said: “Aw hell, Jack, there’s nothing in there that will burn.”

If a fist could come through the radio, it did. He retorted loudly: “The hell there ain’t. I’M in here.”

🙂

c. GCYI