Chalmers Goodlin
| Chalmers Hubert Goodlin | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Slick |
| Born |
January 2, 1923 Greensburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | October 20, 2005 (aged 82) Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Service/branch |
Royal Canadian Air Force U.S. Naval Air Force Israeli Air Force |
| Years of service | 1941–1943, 1948 |
Chalmers Hubert Goodlin (January 2, 1923 – October 20, 2005) was the second test pilot of the Bell X-1 supersonic rocket plane, and the first to operate the craft in powered flight (the others having been glide tests). He was the pilot of the project's second plane, and nearly broke the sound barrier.
Goodlin was born on January 2, 1923, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
He began learning to fly at the age of 15, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 on his eighteenth birthday, inspired by the tremendous air battles over the English Channel in early World War II, but was unable to participate as part of the American military since the U.S. had not yet entered the war. He became the youngest commissioned officer in the RCAF and entered the European theater in 1942. By December of that year, the U.S. Navy had requested that Goodlin transfer back to the States, where he underwent training to become a Navy test pilot. He was released from active duty and found employment with Bell Aircraft as a test pilot in December 1943.
In 1946, at the first post-war National Air Races in Cleveland, he was the co-owner and test pilot of a Bell P-63 Kingcobra.
The Bell Aircraft Corporation built the X-1 in an attempt to break the sound barrier in the 1940s. Goodlin became one of the very first certified jet pilots in the United States, was the second pilot to fly the X-1. Goodlin's first, unpowered, flight was on October 11, 1946 at Muroc AFB, California. After a further three glide flights, Goodlin became the first pilot of the X-1 in powered flights, on December 9, 1946 in the #2 aircraft. (The #1 aircraft had been returned to Bell's Buffalo, New York plant for modifications.) Goodlin made another 11 flights in the #2 aircraft before flying the newly modified #1 aircraft. The modifications to the #1 aircraft included new wings (8% thickness/chord ratio as opposed to 10% thickness/chord ratio of the #2 aircraft) and a new horizontal stabilizer (6% thickness/chord ratio as opposed to 8% thickness/chord ratio of the #2 aircraft). Goodlin's first flight in the modified #1 aircraft was April 10, 1947. He flew the X-1 a total of 26 times, pushing it near the sound barrier. Goodlin joined the "Caterpillar Club" two times after bailing out of aircraft during test flights.
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