They flew alone. Nobody else acting as backup pilot. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager
ODT,
Your’e carping about the age of two of the primier pilots in the nation ! Yeager’s SB accomplishments are well-documented, but he also performed a lot of evaluation flights of captured axis aircraft that were a lot more “dangerous”, IMO !
As for R.A. “Bob” Hoover, he was both test and “demo” pilot for NA on the F-86 ! When overrun accident losses hit a high in Korea NAA sent him to Korea to demonstrate to USAF pilots how to fly the F-86 safely ! I’ve met the man and watched him fly many times ! (I saw his very first “demo” of the capabilities of the Aero-Commander at Reading, PA, oh so many years’ back ! [There’s a video of me on the flight line for that show !] >PS
From your source:
On October 14, 1997, on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight past Mach 1, he flew a new Glamorous Glennis III, an F-15D Eagle, past Mach 1, with Lt. Col. Troy Fontaine as co-pilot. The chase plane for the flight was an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Bob Hoover, a famous air-show pilot, and his wingman for the first supersonic flight.
I haven't been able to confirm whether Hoover was alone in the F-16. In any case, I doubt either one was performing high-G maneuvers during this PR flight.