Slick Goodlin dead at 82

Retired test pilot Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin died Oct. 20 of cancer.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-.../s_386693.html

--
Paul Hirose
To reply by email remove INVALID

Retired test pilot Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin died Oct. 20 of cancer.

I've read that Slick wanted a huge bundle of dough to test the X-1,
which is why Yeager, who was willing to do it for regular service pay,
got the job.

The newspaper didn't mention that. Not surprising.

vince norris

Vince,

Actually Slick wanted normal pay for a test pilot for the work he was
doing. It may well have been that the Air Force used the pay excuse to
make sure one of its pilots, rather than the factory test pilot, a
civilian, got the official record. Tom Wolfe in the book _The Right
Stuff_ treated Goodlin very shabbily and elevated a pretty much
otherwise regular test pilot who happened to have a monumental ego to
hero status. By denigrating Goodlin, who was extremely good and had
done some pretty incredible things (and went on to do some very amazing
things) Wolfe built up Yeager. There were quite a few pilots, civilian
and military, who were in line and willing to fly the X-1 because it
was getting a massive amount of publicity during the developmental
flights by the Bell factory pilot, Goodlin. (Bell had a rep for having
some of the best test pilots in the business-Boeing hired Tex Johnston
from Bell to be its chief of flight test.) During the late '40s
through the '60s the Air Force made sure its active duty pilots were
flying when records were "officially" set. However, what they didn't
talk about was that for all of the speed runs, a factory test pilot had
made the run a few days earlier, without the FAI observers present, to
confirm that the airplane would perform as advertised. The Air Force
did not want any surprises when the official observers were present.
Al White, who was chief of flight test for North American in the X-15
and XB-70 days, wrote a book about his experiences, including making
speed runs in the F-100 and F-107 a few days before the Air Force's
test pilot would repeat the run for the official record. He thought it
was interesting that the factory pilots could often get a few more
knots out of the airplane than the Air Force pilot on the record
setting day.

Interstingly, Wolfe and others failed to mention that the chief test
pilot for North American at the time, George Welch (who was one of the
few pilots who shot down Japanese airplanes over Pearl Harbor on Dec 7,
- later died when an upper right hand corner of the Vn diagram - max
speed, high G - test of an F-100 went horribly wrong), had exceeded the
speed of sound several times in the prototype F-86 in the two weeks
prior to Yeager's flight. But, the Air Force wanted the credit for the
first and made sure one of its pilots instead of a civilian pilot got
the publicity. North American was not allowed to instrument the
airplane for official speed until after Yeager did his thing. Yeager
was the first to go supersonic in level flight, and rightfully gets
credit for that, however, the F-86 did so in a dive, and actually went
through the transonic range much more smoothly than the straight wing
X-1.

It's sad that because of one book that glorified one guy whose
reputation in the test pilot community is lousy for letting his ego put
test programs at risk, also managed to effectively smear the reputation
of someone who was exceedingly good in his own right and went on to do
some humanitarian work that was most impressive.

All the best,
Rick

wrote in message
oups.com...
Vince,

Actually Slick wanted normal pay for a test pilot for the work he was
doing. It may well have been that the Air Force used the pay excuse to
make sure one of its pilots, rather than the factory test pilot, a
civilian, got the official record. Tom Wolfe in the book _The Right
Stuff_ treated Goodlin very shabbily and elevated a pretty much
otherwise regular test pilot who happened to have a monumental ego to
hero status. By denigrating Goodlin, who was extremely good and had
done some pretty incredible things (and went on to do some very amazing
things) Wolfe built up Yeager. There were quite a few pilots, civilian
and military, who were in line and willing to fly the X-1 because it
was getting a massive amount of publicity during the developmental
flights by the Bell factory pilot, Goodlin. (Bell had a rep for having
some of the best test pilots in the business-Boeing hired Tex Johnston
from Bell to be its chief of flight test.) During the late '40s
through the '60s the Air Force made sure its active duty pilots were
flying when records were "officially" set. However, what they didn't
talk about was that for all of the speed runs, a factory test pilot had
made the run a few days earlier, without the FAI observers present, to
confirm that the airplane would perform as advertised. The Air Force
did not want any surprises when the official observers were present.
Al White, who was chief of flight test for North American in the X-15
and XB-70 days, wrote a book about his experiences, including making
speed runs in the F-100 and F-107 a few days before the Air Force's
test pilot would repeat the run for the official record. He thought it
was interesting that the factory pilots could often get a few more
knots out of the airplane than the Air Force pilot on the record
setting day.

Interstingly, Wolfe and others failed to mention that the chief test
pilot for North American at the time, George Welch (who was one of the
few pilots who shot down Japanese airplanes over Pearl Harbor on Dec 7,
- later died when an upper right hand corner of the Vn diagram - max
speed, high G - test of an F-100 went horribly wrong), had exceeded the
speed of sound several times in the prototype F-86 in the two weeks
prior to Yeager's flight. But, the Air Force wanted the credit for the
first and made sure one of its pilots instead of a civilian pilot got
the publicity. North American was not allowed to instrument the
airplane for official speed until after Yeager did his thing. Yeager
was the first to go supersonic in level flight, and rightfully gets
credit for that, however, the F-86 did so in a dive, and actually went
through the transonic range much more smoothly than the straight wing
X-1.

It's sad that because of one book that glorified one guy whose
reputation in the test pilot community is lousy for letting his ego put
test programs at risk, also managed to effectively smear the reputation
of someone who was exceedingly good in his own right and went on to do
some humanitarian work that was most impressive.

All the best,
Rick

Has anybody ever met anyone that actually likes Yeager. Latest word is his
own kids are now on the outs after his recent female episode.

Has anybody ever met anyone that actually likes Yeager. Latest word is
his
own kids are now on the outs after his recent female episode.

I think Jim Weir likes him as a hangar neighbor?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:z5L7f.472406$x96.142332@attbi_s72...
Has anybody ever met anyone that actually likes Yeager. Latest word is
his
own kids are now on the outs after his recent female episode.


The "outs" are due to Yeager modifying his will and other financial matters
to include the "female episode" which happens to be his wife. Damned good
pilot, by the way. The wife, that is.


I think Jim Weir likes him as a hangar neighbor?

I said he is my hangar neighbor, period. Son of a bitch used to steal
peaches from my orchard when he cut across my place walking up to the
airport from his house.


Jim

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 03:57:10 GMT, "Dave Stadt"
wrote:


Has anybody ever met anyone that actually likes Yeager. Latest word is his
own kids are now on the outs after his recent female episode.



I like Yeager, but I was sure disappointed this year at Oshkosh.

My 8 year old daughter has gone to bed with stories of aviation's
greats for several years. She's enthralled with it all, and will
describe how much Mike Melville's wife loves him (She's seen the Black
Sky DVDs a half dozen times) or gladly tell you how Yeager broke the
sound barrier with a broken rib, how he used a broom handle, etc.

When she found out that Rutan would be at Oshkosh this year, along
with SpaceShipOne, she made me promise we would go. Go we did, and I
sat down with her and my two older boys to plan our stay there. Of
course we had to see Rutan and Yeager, which is how I found myself
sitting in on the last half of Bob Hoover's presentation in the
Heritage Museum.

Hoover's such a gentleman. Then Yeager came on, and the first thing
we got was a 20 minute video on Yeager. It seemed strange. He just
sat on stage for the whole thing, which would have been interesting to
watch at home, but not sitting there.

Then during his talk he started getting very political, and began
saying things like the British did the right thing by blowing that
guy's head off in the subway station and we should handle them that
way. This was AFTER it had been determined the poor guy had nothing
to do with terrorism. It was an embarassing moment more than
anything. I just felt kinda sad and embarassed, even though I do
actually agree with the sentiment.

My daughter took pictures of him, but complained that he showed the
video for such a long time. I could tell she wasn't quite as
impressed as she expected to be.

Bottom line, I was reminded of Hollywood celebrities who get out of
touch with the real world, begin to use the attention they have to
create a political platform, and forget what the fans are really there
to see.

Rutan on the other hand...quirky but a hell of a guy.

Bill Strahan
------------
Find a new reason to fly
www.adventurepilot.com

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Bill wrote:

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 03:57:10 GMT, "Dave Stadt"
wrote:


Has anybody ever met anyone that actually likes Yeager. Latest word is his
own kids are now on the outs after his recent female episode.




I like Yeager, but I was sure disappointed this year at Oshkosh.

My 8 year old daughter has gone to bed with stories of aviation's
greats for several years. She's enthralled with it all, and will
describe how much Mike Melville's wife loves him (She's seen the Black
Sky DVDs a half dozen times) or gladly tell you how Yeager broke the
sound barrier with a broken rib, how he used a broom handle, etc.

When she found out that Rutan would be at Oshkosh this year, along
with SpaceShipOne, she made me promise we would go. Go we did, and I
sat down with her and my two older boys to plan our stay there. Of
course we had to see Rutan and Yeager, which is how I found myself
sitting in on the last half of Bob Hoover's presentation in the
Heritage Museum.

Hoover's such a gentleman. Then Yeager came on, and the first thing
we got was a 20 minute video on Yeager. It seemed strange. He just
sat on stage for the whole thing, which would have been interesting to
watch at home, but not sitting there.

Yes, Hoover is a class act all the way. Yeager is ego all the way.
Great pilots both, but if I could win a day with either one, the choice
would be a no-brainer.


Matt

Dave,

It's quite interesting to spend time with test pilots who had worked
with Yeager. The real test pilots from the days of the early jets and
rocket planes are extremely quiet, not cocky at all; as if they know
just how very lucky they were just to survive. Then comes Yeager who
put a multi-million dollar test program at risk because he decided to
fly with broken ribs due to his own ego getting in the way of the
program. Then, to the astonishment of the test pilot community, he's
portrayed as larger than life for his absence of judgment. As you
listen to them talk, you hear about how Yeager would sometimes be truly
one of the guys, twisting wrenches with the enlisted men and then
would, strangely, refuse to read the technical material on a test,
again placing it at risk, until it bit him with the F-104 test where
what was described as his failure to understand the installed systems
lead to loss of the airplane and him having to eject, destroying the
airplane and ending the program. Of course Tom Wolfe portrayed it as
an heroic ejection and escape from nearly certain death. sigh

Funny how the truly great test pilots don't get well known, for
example, Ivan Kinchloe, the guy that the Society of Experimental Test
Pilots thought was so very good that it named the award it gives to the
best test pilot each year, is largely unknown outside of the community.
He was killed trying to eject from an F-104 that had difficulties
right after takeoff. Al White, who hand flew the XB-70 at Mach 3 at
over 70,000 feet, where the margin for error on handling tolerances was
tiny, and did it for hours at a time, now lives quietly in Arizona and
even his neighbors don't know what he did - yet if you go to the Air
Force Museum in Dayton and look at the XB-70 on display, it's his name
under the window as the pilot.

Slick Goodlin, who did all the initial testing on the X-1, before it
was in condition to be handed over to the military, got shafted by an
author, and despite all he did with humanitarian airlifts, is recalled
by the public as a greedy person. It doesn't matter what kind of
person one really is, I guess, it only matters how one is portrayed by
the popular media.

All the best,
Rick

wrote in message
oups.com...

Snip

Slick Goodlin, who did all the initial testing on the X-1, before it
was in condition to be handed over to the military, got shafted by an
author, and despite all he did with humanitarian airlifts, is recalled
by the public as a greedy person. It doesn't matter what kind of
person one really is, I guess, it only matters how one is portrayed by
the popular media.

I hope for the sake of good people everywhere, you have this backwards...

I think it should read:

It doesn't matter how the popular media portray someone. What matters is
how they really are. This goes for Slick Goodlin and the hundreds of
thousands of others from that generation who were just "doin' a job that
needed doin'."

Regards,

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
AZ Cloudbusters
Chandler, AZ