American test pilot and World War II flying ace who became the first person to officially break the sound barrier in 1947 — and whose combination of extraordinary skill, rural West Virginia origins, and studied cool under pressure made him the archetypal American test pilot.
Embodied the performance ideal of being simultaneously the most capable person in a situation and the least demonstrative about it — the famous incident of breaking the sound barrier with two broken ribs (from a horse riding accident days before) kept secret from his superiors being the defining anecdote of capability executed quietly.
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