Fact1: Bond took year to recover from ordeal before showing up at Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base hoping to return to work as test pilot, Fact2: Bond presses for job accepts general 's offer of routine flying in support, Fact3: Banner is hands-on leader taking most dangerous assignments himself, Fact4: head of company built fighter, Fact5: Major Joe Craven is killed when wing of XF-120 tears away confirming Bond 's warning
Output: USAF Major Lincoln Bond William Holden was captured during the Korean War and subjected to torture, finally cracking after 14 months and signing a confession used for propaganda. Upon his release, he took a year to recover from the ordeal before showing up at the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, hoping to return to work as a test pilot. His old buddy, Colonel McKee Charles McGraw, tries his best for him, but the base commander, Brigadier General Banner Lloyd Nolan, turns him down because he cannot trust him to be stable. A complication is that the generals secretary and love interest, Connie Mitchell Virginia Leith, is an old flame. Bond presses for a job and accepts the generals offer of routine flying in support. Banner is a handson leader, taking the most dangerous assignments himself. When Bond flies the new Gilbert XF120 fighter, he finds dangerous structural problems that threaten its imminent acceptance by the Air Force. However, nobody really believes his claim that he did not subject the fighter prototype to stresses beyond its design specifications, especially H. G. Gilbert Ralph Moody, the head of the company that built the fighter. When the general tries to replicate Bonds maneuvers, nothing untoward happens. Afterward, Bond sees Banner nearly collapse in the locker room, but Banner shrugs off the incident. The two begin to trust each other, especially when Banner is endangered in a test flight, and Bond calmly and expertly comes to the rescue. Then Major Joe Craven James Garner, another close friend of Bonds, is killed when a wing of his XF120 tears away, confirming Bonds warning. Bonds rehabilitation is endangered when a drunk Major Bromo Lee Murray Hamilton, Banners top test pilot, tries to pick a fight with him at the officers club. Bond reacts badly to being held by a bystander, invoking memories of his Korean War imprisonment, and punches Bromo twice. With an appreciation that both men were to blame for the altercation, Banner gives Bond the assignment he craves: the rocketpowered X2, which is designed to fly to the edge of outer space. The general insists, however, on piloting the first test flight at full power, despite strong pressure from his superior, Lieutenant General Bryan Shelby Paul Fix, to let a younger man take on the dangerous job. When Bond is assigned to fly the last halfpower test before the main flight, he goes to full power without authorization and barely survives a highaltitude bailout when the aircraft goes out of control. The base flight surgeon tells Banner that only a young, fit person could have survived, leading the general to accept a promotion and transfer. He recommends Colonel McKee as his successor. Although Banner offers to take Connie with him to his new assignment, she decides to stay with Bond.