On 8 May 2004 00:35:17 -0700, (robert arndt) wrote:

(UmTutSut) wrote in message . com...
I'm currently working on a 1/72 Bell X-1, and I'd like to put it in a
vignette showing Yeager standing next to the plane just after landing
on the day of his first supersonic flight.

In one (maybe both) of his biographies, Yeager says he was met by the
Muroc fire chief, just like on every prior flight. My really obscure
question: what was the fire chief driving, and what color was the
vehicle?

I *think* I've seen a film clip of the X-1 being towed across the
lakebed by a vehicle bigger than a jeep but smaller than a typical
Army or Air Force truck. Maybe that's the one?

Mucho thanx for any help!

Les (Friendly Airplane Asylum flack)

How about asking a really obscure question like, "how many OTHER
pilots broke Mach 1 before Yeager?" I'm betting he's down the list at
the number 4 or 5 position after the XF-86 test pilots, the 1946
Me-262 FE test pilots at Wright Field, and of course the real first
pilot- Luftwaffe pilot Hans Mutke flying "White 9" in April 1945 over
Innsbruck.

http://mach1.luftarchiv.de/weisse_9.htm

Rob

p.s. Junk that 1/72 X-1.

Yeager achieved Mach 1 in level flight, not in a dive. And if you
knew anything about aerodynamics you would know that a 262
would, in all probability, suffered an "explosive disassembly"
if it approached Mach.

The Nazis lost, get over it.

Al Minyard