2020年经济学人 查尔斯·耶格尔将军(2)（在线收听）

But when on October 14th 1947 he was dropped in the Bell X-1, a rocket-powered experimental plane, from the bomb bay of a B-29, he had no idea what lay ahead. Fun, probably, as he loved the X-1, and in his post-war test-pilot job he preferred tactical flying that focused on one aircraft, rather than a dozen different planes every week. It was more like combat, and the band of pilots he now belonged to, at Muroc air force base in California, were ex-warriors who felt the same way.

但1947年10月14日，他被扔在贝尔X-1火箭动力实验飞机上，在B-29的炸弹舱里，他根本不知道前方会发生什么。可能很有趣，因为他喜欢X-1，在战后试飞员的工作中，他更喜欢专注于一架飞机的战术飞行，而不是每周有十几架不同的飞机。这更像是战斗，他现在所属的飞行员队伍，在加州的穆洛克空军基地，其他飞行员也曾经是勇士，他们感同身受。

Glamorous Glennis was painted on the bright orange fuselage in tribute to his wife, the wife with whom he'd had a horseback race two nights before, busting a couple of ribs when his horse flipped him, which still hurt like hell. The engineers back at base feared that breaching the sound barrier might rip the aircraft apart. The least he expected was something like a bump in the road, to show he'd done it: strong proof for the friendly rivals back at base. Instead, at around 700mph (1,126kph) he felt nothing particular, just a bit of resistance, like poking his finger through Jell-O.

迷人的格伦尼斯被画在明亮的橙色机身上，向他的妻子致敬，两天前和他一起骑马的妻子，他落下了马，几根肋骨被摔断了，现在还非常疼。回到基地的工程师们担心，打破声屏障可能会把飞机撕成碎片。他最不希望看到的是道路上的一个颠簸，以证明他做到了这一点：为基地的友好对手提供了有力的证据。相反，在700英里/小时左右，他没有感到什么特别的，只是有点阻力，就像用手指戳果冻一样。

He got the Collier trophy for it, a nice statuette on a plinth, and the family went to the White House to collect it, his father, a staunch Republican, refused to shake Harry Truman's hand. But it was quite a let-down. He had to go much faster to get the effects he had been halfanticipating. That happened in December 1953, after a few flights approaching Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. He was warned that if he went any faster his X-1Aaircraft might go divergent. It did.

他因此得到了科利尔奖杯，拥有底座的漂亮小雕像，全家都去白宫领取，他的父亲，一个坚定的共和党人，拒绝与哈里·杜鲁门握手。但这让人很失望。他必须加快速度才能达到他所预料不到的效果。这发生在1953年12月，几次飞行接近2马赫，是音速的两倍。他被警告说，如果他再快一点，他的X-1飞机可能会散架。是的。