Originally Posted by
rotorfan
Though the details are getting foggy, I thought I recalled a story that Hoover was slated to fly the X-1 flight, but did something to get himself in trouble. Yeager got the honor instead, and the rest is history.
Hoover tells the tale in
Forever Flying (1996) that he got caught flat-hatting trying to impress a girl and for his punishment was moved from the X-1 to the chase plane for the Mach 1 attempt.