Thanks, Frylock! I feel… positively… elevated. 
I suspect you’re thinking of the reference in the book to the 1952 British film The Sound Barrier which was made before Yeager’s breaking of the sound barrier was public knowledge.
If I remember rightly, the test pilot in the film discovers that when approaching the speed of sound, the effect of the plane’s control surfaces is reversed, so that to pull out of a dive, he has to push the stick forward rather than pull it back. Bullshit, of course, but since Yeager’s flight was a military secret at the time, as far as the film makers knew, they were making a science fiction film.
Speaking of early 50s British science fiction (and veering back on topic) – I have a vague but persistant memory that the phrase “reverse the polarity” (and I believe it may have been of the neutron flow) appeared in the 1954 film Devil Girl from Mars.
Thanks, Qaadcop and Frylock. Didn’t recall that use.
Not sure what it means here – it’s given just before the warning about sidearms, not as an order to do anything yet. It almost seems like slang for “bring her in for a landing”.
Man, that thread is funny! The post “I reversed the polarity on my desk lamp by pulling out the plug and putting the plug back in upside-down. Now the light bulb emits ANTI-photons!” has to rank among the great SDMB moments.
2002???
It was that long ago?
Jeez!
When you reverse the polarity on Spaceball One, MightyMaid switches from “Suck” to “Blow!”
Congratulations. When’s your due date?