x planes

“I had my diploma from Hamlin High School tucked in a drawer somewhere, and I fished it out, together with my birth certificate proving I was eighteen, when an Army Air Corps recruiter came to town. I enlisted for a two year hitch. I thought I might enjoy it and see some of the world…

…I became an airplane mechanic. Growing up around truck engines and drilling equipment generators, I was one of the few kids in town who could take apart a car motor and put it back together again. Dad was an expert mechanic, and I just understood motors - a natural ability, like having exceptional eyes and the coordination to be a crack shot. Hand a rifle to a hillbilly and he’ll hit a bull’seye every time.

So, without knowing or even caring, I had the talents needed for flying in combat. But after taking my first airplane ride, I’d rather have crawled across country than go backup. I took off for a spin with a maintenance officer flight testing a ship I had serviced, and I threw up all over the back seat, staggering out of that damned thing as miserable as I’d ever been…”
from “Yeager: An Autobiography”

(photo via AirportJournals, which has possibly the best couple of concise on-line articles about Chuck Yeager)