The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.

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

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.

I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit.

The one word you use in military flying is duty. It's your duty. You have no control over outcome, no control over pick-and-choose. It's duty.

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

Just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most.