There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.

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.

It wasn't that the X-1 would kill you, it was the systems in the X-1 that would kill you.

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.

There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.

If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing.

It's your duty to fly the airplane. If you get killed in it, you don't know anything about it anyway. Duty is paramount. It's that simple if you're a military guy. You don't say 'I'm not going to do that - that's dangerous.' If it's your duty to do it, that's the way it is.