On Thu, 02 Oct 2003 19:03:21 -0700, Mary Shafer wrote:

Even George Welch doesn't think he was first, according to both Dick
Hallion and Chuck Yeager. I heard Chuck say so when asked directly at
the 50th anniversary ceremony.

LOLOLOL

Welch has been dead for 49 years!

Don't you realize how rediculous the above statement sounds?

So, you assume that Yeager is being completely honest about this when it's
Yeager who has the most to gain (or maintain) if Welch wasn't first?!

I read Hallion's timeline that supposedly "proves" that Welch didn't have an
opportunity to dive the XP-86 through Mach 1. The only problem with Hallion's
theory is that it's at odds with the XP-86 log book and Welch's personal log
book. Now, you would think that the Official USAF Historian would have gotten
his hands on this important data, considering that I did by making a few phone
calls and sending a few e-mails. Hell, George's youngest son tracked ME down!

By the way, wasn't Riddley assigned to the XS-1 program? Of course we
know he was eyeball deep in it. Another disinterested party...

All kinds of conflicts of interest here..... It seems that ENRON, Tyco and
Worldcom have nothing on the Air Force when it comes to forthright reporting.

As to who in the "flight test community" believes that Welch was first, it was
Al Blackburn (former President of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots) who
wrote the book that blew the lid off the story. By the way, that book was
published almost two years after you overheard Yeager speaking for a dead guy.

My regards,

Widewing (C.C. Jordan)
http://www.worldwar2aviation.com
http://www.netaces.org
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