That to me is a bunch of crap trying to shoot guys up into damned space. What they're going to do is they're going to wipe out half a dozen people one of these days, and that will be the end of it.

Later, I realized that the mission had to end in a let-down because the real barrier wasn't in the sky but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.

I have no regrets about my life. People ask, "If you had to do it all over again, would you do it differently?" No. That's speculation.

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off.

You concentrate on what you are doing, to do the best job you can, to stay out of a serious situation. That’s the way the X-1 was.

After about 30 minutes I puked all over my airplane. I said to my self, "Man, you made a big mistake."

The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best.