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

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

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

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.

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

There is no kind of ultimate goal to do something twice as good as anyone else can. It's just to do the job as best you can. If it turns out good, fine. If it doesn't, that's the way it goes.

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.