It was, Mr. Wolfe said, the drawl of the most righteous of all the possessors of the right stuff: Chuck Yeager.. He later regretted that his lack of a college education prevented him from becoming an astronaut. In combat from February 1944, Yeager had accounted for an Me-109, over Berlin, by early March, when, on his eighth mission, he was shot down near Bordeaux. Cancelled in 1946, the M-52 would have been supersonic. It was a matter of keeping them from falling apart, Yeager said. He retired in 1976 as a brigadier-general his wife thought he should have made a full general. He was 97. Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the "right stuff" when in 1947 he became the first person to fly faster than sound, has died. A tweet posted on the former U.S. Air Force pilot's . I was just a lucky kid who caught the right ride, he said. The pain took his breath away. A job that required more than skill. This version corrects that Yeager flew an F-15, not an X-15, when he was 79. Yeager, who died on Monday at 97, was deputed to serve in Pakistan as head of the military assistance advisory group (MAAG) with the "modest task" of seeing that the residual trickle of American military aid was properly distributed to the Pakistanis and "to teach Pakistanis how to use American military equipment without killing themselves in the [42] The success of the mission was not announced to the public for nearly eight months, until June 10, 1948. In a tweet from Yeager's . He was 97. In April 1962, Yeager made his only flight with Neil Armstrong. Gen. Charles Chuck Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the right stuff when in 1947 he became the first person to fly faster than sound, had died. ", Yeager strikes a pose with Sam Shepard, who played him in the movie version of The Right Stuff. But he joined a flight program for enlisted men in July 1942, figuring it would get him out of kitchen detail and guard duty. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. But you dont let that affect your job., The modest Yeager said in 1947 he could have gone even faster had the plane carried more fuel. Mike Ives and Neil Vigdor contributed reporting. Contact Us. US Air Force officer and test pilot Chuck Yeager, known as "the fastest man alive," has died at the age of 97. Yeager was not present in the aircraft. Yeager never forgot his roots and West Virginia named bridges, schools and Charlestons airport after him. He said, You dont concentrate on risks. But he was hidden by members of the French underground, made it to neutral Spain by climbing the snowy Pyrenees, carrying a severely wounded flier with him, and returned to his base in England. Thanks for contacting us. Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Is Dead at 97 A World War II fighter ace and Air Force general, he was, according to Tom Wolfe, "the most righteous of all the possessors of. When youre fooling around with something you dont know much about, there has to be apprehension. At enlistment, Yeager was not eligible for flight training because of his age and educational background, but the entry of the U.S. into World War II less than three months later prompted the USAAF to alter its recruiting standards. Yeager had picked up the X-1 job after a civilian test pilot, Slick Goodlin, had asked for $150,000 to attempt to break the sound barrier. When Armstrong did touch down, the wheels became stuck in the mud, bringing the plane to a sudden stop and provoking Yeager to fits of laughter. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. He was depicted breaking the sound barrier in the opening scene. [37], Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in level flight while piloting the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m)[38][d] over the Rogers Dry Lake of the Mojave Desert in California. You can see the treetops in the bottom of the pictures., Yeager flew an F-80 under a Charleston bridge at 450 mph on Oct. 10, 1948, according to newspaper accounts. In December 1953, General Yeager flew the X-1A plane at nearly two and a half times the speed of sound after barely surviving a spin, setting a world speed record. [a] After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942, he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of flight officer (the World War II Army Air Force version of the Army's warrant officer), later achieving most of his aerial victories as a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot on the Western Front, where he was credited with shooting down 11.5 enemy aircraft (the half credit is from a second pilot assisting him in a single shootdown). Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager prepares to board an F-15D Eagle from the 65th Aggressor Squadron at . A World War II fighter pilot, Yeager was propelled into history by breaking the sound barrier in the experimental Bell X-1 research aircraft in October 1947 over Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. Gen. On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not seal the X-1's hatch by himself. That night, he said, his family ate the goose for dinner. BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Legendary pilot and West Virginia native Chuck Yeager died Monday night, his wife said on social media. [27][28] During the mission briefing, he whispered to Major Donald H. Bochkay, "If we are going to do things like this, we sure as hell better make sure we are on the winning side". The X-1A began spinning viciously and spiraling to Earth, dropping 50,000 feet in about a minute. Yeager, from a small town in the hills of West Virginia, flew for more than 60 years, including piloting an X-15 to near 1,000 mph at Edwards in October 2002 at age 79. December 8, 2020. Gen. Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager, the first pilot to fly aircraft exceeding the speed of sound, has died at the age of 97. They had four children: Donald, Michael, Sharon and Susan. 'It was', he later wrote, 'the Indian way of giving Uncle Sam the finger'". He was 97. What really strikes me looking over all those years is how lucky I was, how lucky, for example, to have been born in 1923 and not 1963 so that I came of age just as aviation itself was entering the modern era, Yeager said in a December 1985 speech at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I. His three-war active-duty flying career spanned more than 30 years and took him to many parts of the world, including the Korean War zone and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. By the time Chuck was five, the family were among the 600 inhabitants of nearby Hamlin. General Yeager's 14-minute sprint over the Mojave Desert on Oct. 14, 1947, is considered the most important airplane flight since Orville Wright swept over the sands of Kitty Hawk for 40 yards . GRASS VALLEY, Calif. (AP) Retired Air Force Brig. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star. Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager, the first pilot ever to break the sound barrier, has died. Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager died Dec. 7. rules against Chuck Yeager's daughter in dispute with stepmother", "Chuck Yeager, who made history for breaking the sound barrier, dies at 97", "Chuck Yeager, pilot who broke the sound barrier, dies at 97", Biography in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, General Chuck Yeager, USAF, Biography and Interview, "Chuck Yeager & the Sound Barrier" in Aerospaceweb.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chuck_Yeager&oldid=1142035779, United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War, People from Lincoln County, West Virginia, Recipients of the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States), Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army), Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents, United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II, Pages using cite court with unknown parameters, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Yeager, Chuck, Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover, Jack Russell and James Young, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 04:40. In 2016, when General Yeager was asked on Twitter what made him want to become a pilot, the reply was infused with cheeky levity: I was in maintenance, saw pilots had beautiful girls on their arms, didnt have dirty hands, so I applied.. In an age of media-made heroes, he is the real deal, Edwards Air Force Base historian Jim Young said in August 2006 at the unveiling of a bronze statue of Yeager. Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier and one of the U.S. Air Force's most decorated test pilots, died Monday. Norm Healey was visiting from Canada and reading about Yeager's accomplishments. Not only did they beat Crossfield by setting a new record at Mach 2.44 on December 12, 1953, but they did it in time to spoil a celebration planned for the 50th anniversary of flight in which Crossfield was to be called "the fastest man alive". And was just such a superb pilot.". [87], On October 14, 2012, on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager did it again at the age of 89, flying as co-pilot in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain David Vincent out of Nellis Air Force Base. WASHINGTON - Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter ace who was the first human to travel faster than sound and whose gutsy test pilot exploits were immortalised in the bestselling book "The. his death was announced on his official Twitter account. I recovered the X-1A from inverted spin into a normal spin, popped it out of that and came on back and landed. Ketia Daniel, founder of BHM Cleaning Co., is BestReviews cleaning expert. This was the sound barrier, which no aviator had crossed and lived to tell the tale. Yeager remained in the U.S. Army Air Forces after the war, becoming a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base), following graduation from Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School (Class 46C). He commanded a fighter wing during the Vietnam War while holding the rank of colonel and flew 127 missions, mainly piloting Martin B-57 light bombers in attacking enemy troops and their supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. But Yeager was more than a pilot: In several test flights before breaking the sound barrier, he studied his machine, analyzing the way it handled as it went faster and faster. Flying F-15 planes, he broke the sound barrier again on the 50th and 55th anniversaries of his pioneering flight, and he was a passenger on an F-15 plane in another breaking of the sound barrier to commemorate the 65th anniversary. [117] Glennis Yeager died of ovarian cancer in 1990. This story has been shared 135,794 times. The family later moved to Hamlin, the county seat. Yeager continued working on the X-1 and the X1A, in which he became the second man, after Scott Crossfield, to fly at twice the speed of sound, Mach 2.44, on 12 December 1953. He was, he said in his autobiography Yeager (1985, with Leo Janos), the guy who broke the sound barrier the kid who swam the Mud River with a swiped watermelon, or shot the head off a squirrel before breakfast. And he was also the guy who got patronised by officers who looked down their noses at my ways and accent or pegged him as dumb and down-home. There he flew 127 missions. Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 and moved to a ranch in Cedar Ridge in Northern California where he continued working as a consultant to the Air Force and Northrop Corp. and became well known to younger generations as a television pitchman for automotive parts and heat pumps. [65][76], On March 1, 1975, following assignments in West Germany and Pakistan, Yeager retired from the Air Force at Norton Air Force Base, California. Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the "right stuff" when in. Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account: "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9 pm ET. [27][28] Yeager said, "I'm certainly not proud of that particular strafing mission against civilians. Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager (/jer/ YAY-gr, February 13, 1923 December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Ive flown 341 types of military planes in every country in the world and logged about 18,000 hours, he said in an interview in the January 2009 issue of Mens Journal. [60][61][62][f], In 1966, Yeager took command of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, the Philippines, whose squadrons were deployed on rotational temporary duty (TDY) in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1941. BY STEVEN MAYER smayer@bakersfield.com. [29] He also expressed bitterness at his treatment in England during World War II, describing the British as "arrogant" and "nasty". He later regretted that his lack of a college education prevented him from becoming an astronaut. Yeager himself even made a cameo as Fred, a bartender at Pancho's Palace. He said the ride was nice, just like riding fast in a car.. Chuck Yeager was America's most decorated pilot, Chuck Yeager - who was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973 - kept flying in his later years, 'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal. He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, receiving his best grades in geometry and typing. [65][67][71] Yeager also flew around in his Beechcraft Queen Air, a small passenger aircraft that was assigned to him by the Pentagon, picking up shot-down Indian fighter pilots. It's what happened moments later that cemented his legacy as a top test pilot. I thought he was going to take me off the roof. Ridley rigged up a device, using the end of a broom handle as an extra lever, to allow Yeager to seal the hatch. XBB.1.5 Now Predominant COVID-19 Variant In Oregon. Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter pilot, the first person to break the sound barrier and one of the subjects of Philip Kaufman 's The Right Stuff has died. In 1941, soon after graduating from high school and shortly before the United States entered World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces, later to become the US Air Force. Yeager was also the chairman of Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagle Program from 1994 to 2004, and was named the program's chairman emeritus. Chuck Yeager, the steely Right Stuff test pilot who took aviation to the doorstep of space by becoming the first person to break the sound barrier more than 70 years ago, has died at the age of 97. He also flew directly under the Kanawha Bridge and West Virginia named it the Chuck E. Yeager Bridge. The machmeter swung off the scale, a sonic boom rolled over the Mojave and, at Mach 1.05, 700mph, Yeager, in level flight, broke the sound barrier. The game manuals featured quotes and anecdotes from Yeager and were well received by players. An. At least that was my perspective when I was young. He was 97. But life continued much the same at Muroc. Yeager's death was announced on his official. January 15, 2021 11:45 AM. President Gerald Ford presented the medal to Yeager in a ceremony at the White House on December 8, 1976. Gen. Charles "Chuck' Yeager, passed away. This. He had reached a speed of 700 miles an hour, breaking the sound barrier and dispelling the long-held fear that any plane flying at or beyond the speed of sound would be torn apart by shock waves. Other pilots who have been suggested as unproven possibilities to have exceeded the sound barrier before Yeager were all flying in a steep dive for the supposed occurrence. The retired brigadier-general's wife, Victoria Yeager, confirmed the news of his death on . Chuck Yeager at Edwards Air Force Base in California, on October 14, 1997. His Dutch-German family the surname was an anglicised version of Jger (hunter) had settled there in the 1800s. AP [17] He escaped to Spain on March 30, 1944, with the help of the Maquis (French Resistance) and returned to England on May 15, 1944. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. One day he took a ride with a maintenance officer flight-testing a plane he had serviced and promptly threw up over the back seat. The first time he went up in a plane, he was sick to his stomach. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, a military test pilot who was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound and live to tell about it, died Dec. 7 in Los Angeles. Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who became the first person to fly faster than sound in 1947, has . That year, he flew a chase aircraft for the civilian pilot Jackie Cochran as she became the first woman to fly faster than sound. My accomplishments as a test pilot tell more about luck, happenstance and a persons destiny. You concentrate on results. He'd been fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) for some time and that is believed to be the cause of his death, although no official statement has been released. [97], Yeager was an honorary board member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope. Yeager married 45-year-old Victoria Scott DAngelo in 2003. Chuck Yeager, who has died aged 97, stands alongside the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh in the history of American aviation. But there were no news broadcasts that day, no newspaper headlines. It wasnt a matter of not having airplanes that would fly at speeds like this. until her death on Dec. 22, 1990. The couple prospered because of Yeager's best-selling autobiography, speaking engagements, and commercial ventures. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, 'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal. His signal achievement came on Oct. 14, 1947, when he climbed out of a B-29 bomber as it ascended over the Mojave Desert in California and entered the cockpit of an orange, bullet-shaped, rocket-powered experimental plane attached to the bomb bay. US Air Force / The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images file. Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 and moved to a ranch in Cedar Ridge in Northern California where he continued working as a consultant to the Air Force and Northrop Corp. and became well known to younger generations as a television pitchman for automotive parts and heat pumps. Chuck Yeager dies at 97, Air Force pilot who first broke speed of sound. The pilots and their families had quarters little better than shacks, the days were scorching and the nights frigid, and the landscape was barren. His father was an oil and gas driller and a farmer. This story has been shared 126,899 times. Yeager, who was at the time just 24, managed to break the speed of sound at an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m). Sixty-five years later to the minute, on Oct. 14, 2012, Yeager commemorated the feat, flying in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle as it broke the sound barrier at more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters .

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