Build a movie plot around this: Who was the last American to fly into space alone? Gordo Cooper.
The answer to this question is:
In 1947, a group of determined men gathered at a remote Air Force base in the high desert of California. Their goal was to break the sound barrier by using a small rocket-powered test plane called the X-1. The only problem was that others had tried before, and not all had survived. Some thought of the sound barrier as a "demon that lived in the sky", waiting to destroy any who dared confront it.Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard), a young wartime ace with a wild reputation, volunteers to fly the X-1, and spends the night before his flight at the local bar. After a few drinks, he and his wife go galloping off on their horses through the twilight, but a tree branch catches Yeager across the chest, knocking him off the horse and cracking a few ribs. Hiding his injury from the flight crew the next morning, Yeager climbs painfully into the plane and prepares to confront the sound barrier "demon".The little X-1 is carried aloft by a large B-29 bomber, then at the right altitude, is dropped free. Yeager ignites the rocket engine and quickly zooms up into the sky, going faster and faster, closing in on the deadly Mach-1 mark. The plane begins to vibrate, then shake, with Yeager fighting the controls. Suddenly, there is a strange boom, heard by the crew waiting on the ground, and everyone fears that the sound barrier has claimed another life. A moment later, they are surprised to hear Yeager's calm voice crackle over the radio, "Make a note here would you?" This Mach-meter must be busted. It's jumped clear off the scale." Amazed, then jubilant, they realize that Yeager has done it: The sound barrier had been broken. A reporter rushes to the nearest pay phone to report the event and is stopped by an Air Force officer who tells him the nature of the mission is top secret - they don't want the news to reach the Soviet Union.The desert airbase, now called Edwards, quickly becomes the center for all test and experimental aircraft in the U.S., and every hot-shot jet-jockey looking for a chance to become famous gravitates there. A...