Right Stuff - Rare Bear

[AAFO_WSagar]

Can you find what I'm referring to in this picture??

[Mayo]

Beamins

Could it be the stick of chewing gum on the pannel, like the one Yeager always asked his engineer Riddley fer, prior to a flight?

[T. Adams]

That would be a stick of "Beemens".

[AAFO_WSagar]

LOL... right you are and a very nice touch by the crew, especially considering, that gum has not been in production for YEARS!

[flynride]

mirrored

But the image should not have been reversed :-)

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: mirrored

Originally posted by flynride
But the image should not have been reversed :-)

?? It's not??

Wayne

[Peashooter]

That's the canopy crank, not the throttle.

[Randy Haskin]

Originally posted by AAFO_WSagar
LOL... right you are and a very nice touch by the crew, especially considering, that gum has not been in production for YEARS!

Beeman's made a comeback probably 10 or 15 years ago, along with Clove gum and a couple other throwback flavors. I have a suspicion that it's still being sold today, too.

Strangely, the gum is not really that good and, worse, doesn't retain flavor very long. I don't know what Ridley and Yeager liked about it, since in many interviews Yeager has said the Beemans was to fight the dry mouth caused by breathing pure oxygen. I'd think a gum that kept it's flavor for the duration of the flight would be better!

Then again, they probably didn't have the 3,000 brands of 12-hour, super-power flavor gums that we have today back in 1945.

[mayday51]

Randy,

........you "young-uns" missed some things .....

.......you are right that Beeman's did not hold flavor,
or was very wetting......

BUT:
...........it did/does contain a stomach soothing agent
(pepsin I think).....
.....and was low in actual gum rubber,allowing easier digestion
if swallowed......(one step short of needing a flight suit change)

.........I think that's what those lonely brain cells are telling me,
it's hard to get that pair to work.......

Thanx!