RIP thread

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Chuck Yeager, he was the first pilot that flew at the speed of sound.

Chuck Yeager was the first pilot who intentional flew past the speed of sound in level flight and lived to tell about it.

A few pilots likely flew at or just above speed of sound unintentionally during dives in WWII, and lived to tell about it. a few more pilots intended to fly past speed of sound in dives and in level flight after WWII, but before Yeager, and a few may have succeeded, but didn’t live to tell.

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If it weren't for the stupid rule about having to be a college graduated to qualify for the astronaut programme, Yeager could very well have been the first American in space. Eisenhower insisted on test pilots for Mercury - who the fuck fit that bill better than Yeager?

Boru

The US produced well over a million military pilots during WWII,  plenty of them became test pilots afterwards.  Except for publicity purposes because he is the pilot who happen to be there when the X-1 broke the sound barrier, how does Yeager fit the bill particularly well amongst that large pool?

But against his being there when the sound barrier was broken must be set the fact that he was only there because he broke regulations and hid a debilitating previous rib injury to be there.  This potentially endangered both the effort and the valuable experimental aircraft.

In the race to not be left too far behind the USSR, would the US risk losing more ground by having a national hero die and his spacecraft lost because he broke a few more ribs the night before launch and decided to hide it so as to not lose his spot should fame come?

If Yeager has been disqualified from Mercury because he was a rule breaking hot-dog, I wouldn't have an issue.  But he met all of the requirements for the programme except for having a college degree. 

Boru