Chalmers H. (Slick) Goodlin (1923-2005) became interested in aviation at
the age of fifteen. Two years later, he had solo piloted a number of different
aircraft. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his eighteenth birthday,
intrigued by accounts of tremendous air battles over the English Channel in the
early days of World War II, but 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 was sent over to the European theater in
1942. By December of that year, the U.S. Naval Air Force 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 September, 1946, Goodlin was
selected to be the first test pilot for the second aircraft in the Bell X-1
program. He piloted twenty-six successful flights in both of the X-1 aircraft
from September 1946 until June 1947, when Bell Aircraft's contract was
terminated and Goodlin was replaced as test pilot by Chuck Yeager. See Into
the Unknown (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994); "Chalmers
(Slick) Goodlin," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference
Collection.
Updated December 30, 2005