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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，他被扔在貝爾X-1火箭動力實驗飛機上，在B-29的炸彈艙里，他根本不知道前方會發生什么。可能很有趣，因為他喜歡X-1，在戰后試飛員的工作中，他更喜歡專注于一架飛機的戰術飛行，而不是每周有十幾架不同的飛機。這更像是戰斗，他現在所屬的飛行員隊伍，在加州的穆洛克空軍基地，其他飛行員也曾經是勇士，他們感同身受。
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.
迷人的格倫尼斯被畫在明亮的橙色機身上，向他的妻子致敬，兩天前和他一起騎馬的妻子，他落下了馬，幾根肋骨被摔斷了，現在還非常疼。回到基地的工程師們擔心，打破聲屏障可能會把飛機撕成碎片。他最不希望看到的是道路上的一個顛簸，以證明他做到了這一點：為基地的友好對手提供了有力的證據。相反，在700英里/小時左右，他沒有感到什么特別的，只是有點阻力，就像用手指戳果凍一樣。
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.
他因此得到了科利爾獎杯，擁有底座的漂亮小雕像，全家都去白宮領取，他的父親，一個堅定的共和黨人，拒絕與哈里·杜魯門握手。但這讓人很失望。他必須加快速度才能達到他所預料不到的效果。這發生在1953年12月，幾次飛行接近2馬赫，是音速的兩倍。他被警告說，如果他再快一點，他的X-1飛機可能會散架。是的。
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