Home > Chuck Yeager

Yeager was born into a poor family in West Virginia and joined the army in 1939, serving as an aircraft mechanic. He was selected for flight training in 1942 and soon showed outstanding natural talent as a flyer. Posted to the United Kingdom in 1944, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat, gaining one victory before he was shot down over France. He escaped to SpainThe Kingdom of Spain is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It inc without being captured and was soon flying with the 363rd Fighter Squadron once more—despite a strict policy that no escaped pilot should fly over enemy territory again.

Yeager demonstrated outstanding eyesight, flying skills, and combat leadership potential; he distinguished himself by becoming the first American pilotAviators are people who fly aircraft either for pleasure or for a job. The term is normally applied to pilots but it can be applied more broadly, for example to include people such as wing-walkers who regularly take part in an aerobatic display sequence. to make "ace in a day"—he shot down no less than five enemy aircraft in one mission, finishing the war with 12.5 recognised victories.

Yeager remained in the Air ForceThe United States Air Force USAF is the aviation branch of the United States armed forces. The mission of the USAF is "to defend the United States through the control and exploitation of air and space. Organization There are three components of the USAF: after the war, becoming a test pilot and eventually being selected to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1The Bell X-1 was the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in controlled, level flight. It was the first of the so called X-planes, a series of aircraft designated for testing of new technologies and usually kept highly secret. On October 14, 1947, in a NACAThe National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics NACA was a U. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel formed the c program to research high-speed flight. Yeager broke the sound barriertransonic speed. The cloud is due to the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity. In aerodynamics, the sound barrier is the apparent physical boundary stopping large objects from becoming supersonic. The term came into use during World War II when a number of aircraf on October 14October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in Leap years). There are 78 days remaining. Events 1066 Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman invasion forces of William the Conqueror defeat th, 1947, flying the experimental X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet. Ironically, two nights before while riding a horse, he had broken two ribs. He was so afraid they'd take him off the flight, that he went to a vet in a near by town for treatment, and only told his friend Jack Ridley about it. Ridley then worked up a device (really just the end of a broom handle) to allow Yeager to seal the hatch. Yeager's X-1 is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

He later went on to break many other speed and altitude records. He also was the first American pilot to fly a MiG-15 after its pilot defected to Japan with it. In 1962 he started the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School , which produced astronauts for NASA and the USAF. It was an accident in one of the school's NF-104 s that put an end to his record attempts. In 1966, he took command of the 405th Fighter Wing , whose units were deployed in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. There he racked up another 414 hours of combat time, mostly in a B-57 light bomber. In 1969, he was promoted to brigadier general, and was assigned as the vice-commander of the Seventeenth Air Force .

In 1975, he retired from the Air Force at Norton Air Force Base , but still spent time flying for the USAF and NASA as a consulting test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base.

On October 14, 1997, on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight past Mach 1, he flew a new Glamorous Glennis past Mach 1, an F-15D with Lt. Col. Troy Fontaine. He was chased by a F-16 piloted by Bob Hoover, famous air show pilot and the chase pilot for the first Mach 1 flight, who flew with Col. Jimmy Doolittle III . This was Yeager's last official flight with the Air Force. At the end of this speech to the crowd he concluded, "All that I am...I owe to the Air Force."

Yeager, who never attended college and was often modest about his background, is considered to be one of the great pilots of all time. Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after him. He was the chairman of EAA's Young Eagle Program . Yeager served on the presidential commission that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Yeager was a primary subject of Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff, and of the movie made from it. He has a short cameo in a scene as bartender who—as an in-joke because NASA didn't recruit him as an astronaut because he lacked a college education—wants to serve the NASA recruiters some Scotch and is puzzled when they only want a Coke. He was the prototype flier with the "right stuff."

On February 26, 1945, Yeager married Glennis Dickhouse. They had 4 children. Nearly 13 years after her death, he married sometimes-actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo, 36 years his junior. Three of his children are currently suing for control of his holdings, claiming that D'Angelo married Yeager for his fortune. Yeager contends they simply want more money.

There is a disputed claim by German pilot Hans Guido Mutke to be the first person to break the sound barrier, on April 9, 1945, in a Messerschmitt Me 262. As well, many contend that American pilot George Welch broke the sound barrier XP-86 Sabre just two weeks before Yeager.