http://www.chuckyeager.org/index2.html
Chuck Yeager: Hey, Ridley, make another note here, would ya? Must be something wrong with this ol’ Mach meter. Jumped plumb off the scale. Gone kinda screwy on me.
Jack Ridley: You go ahead and bust it, we’ll fix it. Personally, I think you’re seein’ things.
Chuck Yeager: Yeah, could be. But I’m still goin’ upstairs like a bat outta hell.
from “The Right Stuff”
Wow. The old fellah made it!
Tripler
‘Glamourous Glennis’ must be happy too.
Happy birthday, General!
Glennis died in 1990.
Aw man, did she? 
Tripler
May her namesake live on.
Hell yes, happy 80th, Chuck. You’ll always be a pioneer, even if it was with a little involuntary help from the Brits. 
Nice flying, ace.
What help are you referring to?
Coldfire is refering to the shutdown of the British attempts to break the sound barrier. At the time of the shut down, the brits were ahead of yanks in terms of design concepts, and probably would have broken the barrier before we did. (We also got a lot of info from them, but never reciprocated the gesture.)
Especially the last part: the information was lifted off the Brits in the spirit of “we need to share information, we’re allies”, and it was a one way street.
Try and catch Jeremy Clarkson’s series “Speed” on BBC World, they do some re-runs now and then. It elaborates on this issue.
Doesn’t change Yeager’s achievement one bit, though. Hero!
Anyone else here got a ballcap autographed by his Chuckness? Or am I the only one?
Out of curiosity, I gotta ask: Why?
The only reason I see why is that the British had a lot of ocean to test fly over, where us Yankees had a lot of dry lake bed. Why did the Brits stop?
Tripler
Was it financially related?
The British lost several pilots, I believe, in their attempt to break the barrier. One of the pilots lost was Geoffrey De Havilland Jr., son of the famous De Havilland aircraft designer. I’m not sure if that’s the only reason why the British shelved their attempts though.
IIRC from Yeager’s autobiography, he was amused at Breaking the Sound Barrier, where the British pilot accomplished the feat by
reversing the controls".