Reluctantly, the officer had him dragged back to the interrogation area. Everest remembered what intelligence officials in the Army had told him: “If you’re in a life-threatening situation, you can discuss the aircraft you flew.” The Japanese were always interested in information regarding enemy aircraft, but Everest doubled the statistical data on such areas as speed of the aircraft, armament and bombload. The gamble paid off, and his life was spared. Three months later the war in the Pacific ended, and Pete Everest went home.

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In 1946 he put in for a new assignment, hoping to be selected for a job at the Wright Field Test Flight division in Dayton, Ohio. Out of 800 officers who applied, Everest and three other pilots were chosen for the job that would eventually make him famous as a test pilot.

It was at Wright Field that Pete Everest began flying the latest developments in jet aircraft, but it wasn’t until 1950, when he was transferred to Muroc Flight Test Base in Southern California, that his name would enter the history books.

Barry E. DiGregorio recently interviewed Everest for Aviation History Magazine to learn firsthand what it was like to fly “like a bat out of hell.”

Aviation History: In 1949, you were asked by the chief of Flight Test Operations at Wright Field if you would be interested in doing some altitude tests in the Bell X-1. What was the altitude record at that time and how high did you hope to go?

Everest: The altitude record was actually held by a balloonist at about 72,000 feet. We wanted to break that record.

Aviation History: After Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, he continued flying the X-1 until the end of the program. What was Yeager’s altitude record prior to your flight?

Everest: He had taken the X-1 to about 60,000-65,000 feet.

Aviation History: What altitudes was the Bell X-1 capable of reaching safely?

Everest: We hoped to get up to 74,000 feet.

Aviation History: Since high-altitude flight was still in its infancy in 1949, how much was actually known about the atmosphere above 60,000 feet?

Everest: We made altitude chamber tests and knew almost everything that would happen. We knew that you would not be alive very long above 60,000 feet without protection if the cabin pressure failed, because your blood would expand and boil in the extremely low atmospheric pressure. We made tests in the altitude chamber with “partial” pressure suits and tested them very thoroughly before we made the attempt to go to high altitudes. They were designed to keep your body from expanding in the rarefied atmosphere in an emergency that caused a loss of normal cockpit pressurization.

Aviation History: Would you describe the early X-1 pressure suit?

Everest: It was a portable “torture chamber”! That was one real tight suit. Every suit was tailor-made for each individual and had capstans [flexible, expandable air pipes] running along each arm and leg and down the back. You attached the helmet to the suit where there were restraining wires to hold it on–if you didn’t and the suit was pressurized, the helmet would pop up and probably choke you or even pop off your head. The helmet itself had capstans running around the inside along your forehead, behind your ears, under your neck and back around the other side. If the suit had to be operated, all these capstans expanded so they retained your body so that it didn’t expand in the low pressure and in turn allow your blood to boil. It was very uncomfortable even without being expanded. When it did expand, it became a torture chamber, as the capstans tightened the suit up. It was so tight that you burst a lot of the little capillaries under your skin tissue. You ended up looking like you were in a fight with two or three wildcats–that’s how badly the suit would scratch you.

Aviation History: Do you recall the first time you met Chuck Yeager?

Everest: He was at Wright Field the same time I was. We were both West Virginia boys, and we did a lot of flying together. My impression of him was that he was a damn good fighter pilot and shot down quite a few enemy planes in Europe during World War II. He was shot down himself later on in the war. After his return, [General Dwight D.] Eisenhower requested that he be put back in combat again because that’s how Chuck wanted it. I thought that was pretty much what you would call the “right stuff.” We were good friends then and still are.

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