Yeager: An Autobiography

I NEVER KNEW WHEN I MIGHT BE TAKING MY LAST RIDE

With so many ways to bust my butt flying research aircraft, I knew better than to think that any test flight was routine. Even so, on the morning of October 27, 1947, I was feeling confident in the cockpit of the X-1 research rocket airplane. On the previous flight, the bullet-shaped X-1 had zoomed me into the history books by cracking through the sound harrier. I always had butterflies before being dropped from the belly of the B-29 mother ship, but my tensions this day were minor compared to the sound barrier mission.

"Are you ready, Chuck?" they ask from the mother ship.

"All set," I reply.

The release cable pops and we plunge clear from the shadows of the mother ship, falling fast. I reach for the switch to ignite my engine. It clicks. Nothing happens.

"Hey, I've got total electrical failure," I report. My words travel no further than the cabin because my radio is powerless, too.

The ship is dead and I'm dropping like a bomb, certain to blow a giant crater into the desert floor 20,000 feet below….