___When Douglas test pilot Bill Bridgeman first arrived at Edwards in 1950, he learned that Yeager was “number one . . . on base” and he’d “worn his crown securely.” It didn’t take him long to find out why. On the first mission Yeager flew chase for him, he was flying a D-558-II Skyrocket configured with both a jet and a rocket engine. While climbing a rocket-ignition altitude on jet power, he was blinded by the glare on the sun. As Bridgeman recalled the episode in his autobiography:

___“’Now, now.’ Yeager playfully reprimands. And outside the slit windowpane I see the chase plane glued to my wing. I had forgotten about Mr. Supersonic. The sun is directly in my eyes. I can’t get a good look at him but he is close enough to shake hands with. I squint in his direction trying to make him out.

___My eyes take a second to become adjusted to the shadowy cockpit again . . . It’s difficult to read the instruments with the sun burning in my eyes.

___I am startled as a shadow falls, unexpectedly, across my face, blocking the glare out of the cockpit. Slightly ahead and above me, Yeager is dipping his wing in front of the sun, shading my eyes. continued