As Chuck Yeager retired from being a fighter pilot and got stationed in Dayton, Ohio, he came to enjoy his job as a maintenece officer. He met Bob Hoover, and this is what he had to say about him:

“He loved practical jokes. He went over to a little airport in Dayton and signed up for flying lessons. He took the course taught by a really sharp-looking blonde, and when the time came for him to solo, a bunch of us went out to watch. He took off, climbed above the field, then dove straight down, did a roll and barely missed the hangars, looped and spinned, and turned everything loose. His instructor hid her face in her hands and almost passed out, but when she saw us standing in our uniforms and laughing like hell, she knew she’d been had.”

-Yeager

Chuck then got into talking about his time learning to fly the Bell X-1. He had a lot of briefing and classroom time. In one instance, this is what happened:

“Liquid oxygen was a tad chilly, like minus 290 degrees, and to illustrate the point, they picked up a frog with tweezers, dipped it into the vat, then dropped it on the floor. The frog broke into five pieces.”

-Yeager