Chapter 3, "Yeager" Summary

Chuck Yeager is king of the test pilots. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he is so widely admired that other test pilots imitate his relaxed West Virginia drawl, military pilots imitate the test pilots and commercial pilots imitate the military pilots. Although not from a military background,, when he was 22, at the end of World War II, Yeager had thirteen and a half kills (five make you an ace). Even so, he is surprisingly young to be assigned to Muroc Field.

Muroc, later known as Edwards Air Force Base, is in the high desert north of Los Angeles. Its dry lakebeds make perfect landing strips with a wide margin of error. Hot by day and freezing by night, Muroc is primitive - and available to only the top test pilots. The one place for recreation is Pancho's...