Bell’s design engineers predicted that the X-1A would be able to achieve 2 1/2 times the speed of sound. ___A test pilot observed that “Edwards was not the
				place to attract non-competitive pilots”
				and then-Lt Col Pete Everest, who was chief of flight test operations, later recalled that if “the Skyrocket [had] been purely a Douglas project, perhaps we would not have felt so competitive about it, but as it was sponsored and built for the Navy, naturally some feelings of interservice rivalry was bound to exist.” The sense of rivalry was not just between the military services. At Edwards, in fact, it was every bit as spirited – and far more immediate – between many of the Air Force and NACA pilots. Everest assigned Maj. Chuck Yeager to take over the X-1A envelope expansion program and Yeager and his long-time sidekick and flight test engineer, Maj. Jack Ridley, devised a flight program they dubbed “Operation NACA Weep” to steal the NACA and Navy’s thunder before the 17 December anniversary.