The pilots and their families had quarters little better than shacks, the days were scorching and the nights frigid, and the landscape was barren. Its your job.. He was 97. One of Yeager's jobs during this time was to assist Pakistani technicians in installing AIM-9 Sidewinders on PAF's Shenyang F-6 fighters. [9][b], Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) on September 12, 1941, and became an aircraft mechanic at George Air Force Base, Victorville, California. 2023 BBC. It's your job.". Chuck Yeager was born in Myra, West Virginia, on February 13, 1923. During his stay with the Maquis, Yeager assisted the guerrillas in duties that did not involve direct combat; he helped construct bombs for the group, a skill that he had learned from his father. 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. Away from The Right Stuff, some critics charged that the vastly experienced Yeager had simply ignored advice about the complexities of the new jet. He left Muroc in 1954 and in that decade and the 1960s, he held commands in Germany, France, Spain and the US. 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. [36][c] Besides his wife who was riding with him, Yeager told only his friend and fellow project pilot Jack Ridley about the accident. [78] Also in popular culture, Yeager has been referenced several times as being part of the shared Star Trek universe, including having a fictional type of starship named after him and appearing in archival footage within the opening title sequence for the series Star Trek: Enterprise (20012005). Bob van der Linden of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington says Yeager stood out. In the decade that followed, he helped usher in the age of military jets and spaceflight. He returned to combat during the Vietnam War, flying several missions a month in twin-engine B-57 Canberras making bombing and strafing runs over South Vietnam. Sure, I was apprehensive, he said in 1968. Yeager flew for what was then his monthly USAF pay of $283. [59], Between December 1963 and January 1964, Yeager completed five flights in the NASA M2-F1 lifting body. A job that required more than skill. Gen. Chuck Yeager, who passed away Monday at the age of 97. [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. [123][124], Yeager lived in Grass Valley, Northern California and died in the afternoon of December 7, 2020 (National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day), at age 97, in a Los Angeles hospital.[125][126]. When Yeager left Hamlin, he was already known as a daredevil. There is anecdotal evidence that American pilot, Yeager received the DSM in the Army design, since the. Contact Us. Sam Shepard received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Yeager in the 1983 film. An accident during a December 1963 test flight in one of the school's NF-104s resulted in serious injuries. He retired from the Air Force in 1975 after logging more than 10,000 hours of flight time in roughly 360 different military aircraft models. When youre fooling around with something you dont know much about, there has to be apprehension. He enjoyed spins and dives and loved staging mock dogfights with his fellow trainees. Yeager was born on Feb. 13, 1923, in the tiny West Virginia town of Myra. General Yeager broke the sound barrier again in an F-15D on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight in 1997. But he joined a flight program for enlisted men in July 1942, figuring it would get him out of kitchen detail and guard duty. [89] In December 1975, the U.S. Congress awarded Yeager a silver medal "equivalent to a noncombat Medal of Honor for contributing immeasurably to aerospace science by risking his life in piloting the X-1 research airplane faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947". It concluded with Yeager, 16 years on from his exploits in Harry Trumans America, in the 1963 of JFKs new frontier. Subsequently he represented ACDelco (a General Motors company), lectured, worked as an aviation consultant, and continued to fly supersonic, and other, aircraft. Yeager married 45-year-old Victoria Scott DAngelo in 2003. American World War II flying ace and test pilot, Yeager had not been in an airplane prior to January 1942, when his Engineering Officer invited him on a test flight after maintenance of an. Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager died, Dec. 7, 2020. When he was five years old, his family moved to Hamlin, West Virginia.Yeager had two brothers, Roy and Hal Jr., and two sisters, Doris Ann (accidentally killed at age two by six-year-old Roy playing with a . [75] Yeager was incensed over the incident and demanded U.S. In his portrayal of the astronauts of NASAs Mercury program, Mr. Wolfe wrote about the post-World War II test pilot fraternity in Californias desert and its notion that a man should have the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness to pull it back in the last yawning moment and then go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day., That quality, understood but unspoken, Mr. Wolfe added, would entitle a pilot to be part of the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself.. His record-breaking flight opened up space, Star Wars, satellites, he told Agence France-Presse in 2007. [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. With the U.S. Air Force's 75th Birthday approaching next year, we look back at the legacy of the first person to break the sound barrier at a time when the Air Force was not even a month old. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. ", Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies, "The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club", "Famous pilot Yeager re-enacting right stuff 65 years later", "Chuck Yeager, Pioneer of Supersonic Flight, Dies at Age 97", "Chuck Yeager is honored by Tuskegee Airman", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", "The Daily Diary of President Gerald R. Ford: December 8, 1976", "Ground-Level Monuments Honor Heroes of the Air", "Harry S. Truman The President's Day, November 2, 1950". On February 26, 1945, Yeager married Glennis Dickhouse, and the couple had four children. Yeager was born February 13, 1923, in Myra, West Virginia, to farming parents Albert Hal Yeager (1896-1963) and Susie Mae Yeager (ne Sizemore; 1898-1987). Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. Yeager, who was at the time just 24, managed to break the speed of sound at an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m). Charles Elwood Yeager was born on Feb. 13, 1923, in Myra, W. Va., the second of five children of Albert and Susie Mae (Sizemore) Yeager. The Marshall University community is remembering Brig. When youre fooling around with something you dont know much about, there has to be apprehension. 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. He was 97. I thought he was going to take me off the roof. Its not, you know, you dont do it for the to get your damn picture on the front page of the newspaper, Yeager told NPR in 2011. 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. Warner Bros./Getty Images It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET, Victoria Yeager wrote on her husbands verified Twitter account. Yeager joined the USAF test pilot school at Muroc (now known as Edwards Air Force Base), and in June 1947 he was enlisted in the X-1 programme, making his first powered flight reaching Mach .85 that August. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Collier air trophy in December 1948 for his breaking the sound barrier. Working with the Piper company he broke several flying records for light aircraft. 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". He was also one of the first American pilots to fly a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, after its pilot, No Kum-sok, defected to South Korea. until her death on Dec. 22, 1990. Yeagers pioneering and innovative spirit advanced Americas abilities in the sky and set our nations dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age. In 2005 President George W Bush promoted him to major-general. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. An incredible life well lived, Americas greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever. He graduated from high school in June 1941. 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 grew up in nearby Hamlin, a town of about 400, where his father drilled for natural gas in the coal fields. Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer was Electronic Art's top-selling game for 1987. Summary: Retired Air Force Brig. Through the NACA program, he became the first human to officially break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, when he flew the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m), for which he won both the Collier and Mackay trophies in 1948. 2. Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier and a subject of the book and film "The Right Stuff," has died.He was 97. [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. 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. Plane Said to Fly Faster Than Speed of Sound", "Mach match: Did an XP-86 beat Yeager to the punch? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. But the guy who broke the sound barrier was the kid who swam the Mud River with a swiped watermelon or shot the head off a squirrel before going to school.. In 1950, General Yeagers X-1 plane, which he christened Glamorous Glennis, honoring his wife, went on display at the SmithsonianInstitution in Washington. 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. Chuck Yeager, who has died aged 97, stands alongside the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh in the history of American aviation. In 1962, he became commander of the school at Edwards that trained prospective astronauts. The actor Sam Shepard, left, and General Yeager on the set of the 1983 film The Right Stuff, in which Mr. Shepard played General Yeager. In March 1944, when Yeager was based in England, he survived being shot down behind enemy lines in France. [43][44] Yeager was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Collier Trophy in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight,[45][46] and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954. [24] Yeager said both pilots bailed out. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian award, from President Ronald Reagan in 1985. That year, he flew a chase aircraft for the civilian pilot Jackie Cochran as she became the first woman to fly faster than sound. He also flew directly under the Kanawha Bridge and West Virginia named it the Chuck E. Yeager Bridge. [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. It was a dangerous quest one that had killed other pilots in other planes. I thought he was going to take me off the roof. 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. As I've grown older and now have kids and a family and a wife, I appreciate it much more now, his courage. [97], Yeager was an honorary board member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope. During the ejection, the seat straps released normally, but the seat base slammed into Yeager, with the still-hot rocket motor breaking his helmet's plastic faceplate and causing his emergency oxygen supply to catch fire. This was the sound barrier, which no aviator had crossed and lived to tell the tale. Two of these victories were scored without firing a single shot: when he flew into firing position against a Messerschmitt Bf 109, the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to port and colliding with his wingman. 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. It is referred to as a Special Congressional Silver Medal in the President's Daily Diary (also see for a list of ceremony attendees). "All through my career, I credit luck a lot with survival because of the kind of work we were doing.". Oh, there were news reports about his death at the age of 97, but not enough of a sendoff for someone who did what he did with his life. Later on, I realized that this mission had to end in a letdown because the real barrier wasnt in the sky but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.. [25][26], In his 1986 memoirs, Yeager recalled with disgust that "atrocities were committed by both sides", and said he went on a mission with orders from the Eighth Air Force to "strafe anything that moved". He said he was just doing his job. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. After high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he didn't have the education credentials for flight training. But there were no news broadcasts that day, no newspaper headlines. [7], His first experience with the military was as a teen at the Citizens Military Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, during the summers of 1939 and 1940. 'It was', he later wrote, 'the Indian way of giving Uncle Sam the finger'". 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. BY STEVEN MAYER smayer@bakersfield.com. [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. [63], Yeager was promoted to brigadier general and was assigned in July 1969 as the vice-commander of the Seventeenth Air Force. She is the namesake of his sound-barrier breaking Bell X-1 aircraft, "Glamorous Glennis". Air Force Captain Charles Yeager, 25, in Los Angeles on Jan., 21, 1949. 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. One of the world's most famous aviators has died: Chuck Yeager best known as the first to break the sound barrier died at the age of 97. The airport that serves Charleston, West Virginia, is named after Chuck Yeager. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called his death "a tremendous loss to our nation.". Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions during World War II, including five on a single mission. Dec 9, 2020. Supersonic pioneer Chuck Yeager passes away at 97 | News | Flight Global Aviation pioneer Charles 'Chuck' Yeager passed away on 7 December at the age of 97. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff, and the 1983 film it inspired. On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager, then a 24-year-old captain, pushed an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph to break the sound barrier, at the time a daunting aviation milestone. And the X-1 buffeted like a bucking horse as it approached the speed of sound Mach 1 about 700 miles per hour at altitude. [82], In 2009, Yeager participated in the documentary The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a profile of his friend Pancho Barnes. Mr. Wolfe wrote about a nonchalance affected by pilots in the face of an emergency in a voice specifically Appalachian in origin, one that was first heard in military circles but ultimately emanated from the cockpits of commercial airliners. [53][e], Yeager was foremost a fighter pilot and held several squadron and wing commands. . A tweet posted on the former U.S. Air Force pilot's official Twitter account and attributed to his wife, Victoria Yeager, confirmed the World War II ace died just before 9 p.m. Monday. It's what happened moments later that cemented his legacy as a top test pilot. Born on February 13th, 1923, General Chuck Yeager with the Bell X-1 team, made world history breaking the sound barrier on Oct. 14th, 1947. Glennis Yeager died in 1990, predeceasing her husband by 30 years. Yeager was born Feb. 23, 1923, in Myra, a tiny community on the Mud River deep in an Appalachian hollow about 40 miles southwest of Charleston. His father was an oil and gas driller and a farmer. Yeager had unusually sharp vision (a visual acuity rated 20/10), which once enabled him to shoot a deer at 600yd (550m). US test pilot Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier, has died aged 97, his wife says. Among the flights he made after breaking the sound barrier was one on Dec. 12. 03:07 Marc Cook. Chuck Yeager, the most famous test pilot of his generation, who was the first to break the sound barrier and, thanks to Tom Wolfe, came to personify the death-defying aviator who possessed the elusive yet unmistakable right stuff, died on Monday in Los Angeles. his death was announced on his official Twitter account. [90][g], Yeager, who never attended college and was often modest about his background, is considered by many, including Flying Magazine, the California Hall of Fame, the State of West Virginia, National Aviation Hall of Fame, a few U.S. presidents, and the United States Army Air Force, to be one of the greatest pilots of all time. [88], In 1973, Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, arguably aviation's highest honor. In February 1968, Yeager was assigned command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, and led the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II wing in South Korea during the Pueblo crisis. He was showered with awards, and the airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after him. Yeager was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. Chuck Yeager, standing next to the "Glamorous Glennis," the Bell X-1 experimental plane with which he first broke the sound barrier. 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. The public was only told about the mission in June 1948. Key points: Yeager broke the sound barrier when he was just 24 years old in 1947 Glennis Dickhouse was pilot Chuck Yeager's wife of 45 years. Such was the difficulty of this task that the answer to many of the inherent challenges was along the lines of "Yeager better have paid-up insurance". From his early years as a fighter ace in World War II to the last time he broke the sound barrier in 2012 - at the age of 89 - Chuck Yeager became the most decorated US pilot ever. December 7, 2020 8:30pm. "He cleared me for combat after D Day, because all the free Frenchmen Maquis and people like that had surfaced". 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. Gen. Charles "Chuck' Yeager, passed away. "[116] Yeager and Glennis moved to Grass Valley, California, after his retirement from the Air Force in 1975. [95] He was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor 1990 inaugural class. She died of ovarian cancer in December 1990. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0, The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, South Korean Order of National Security Merit, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, "Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Is Dead at 97", "Four-Year-Old Boy Kills Baby Sister with Gun", https://archive.org/details/yeagerautobiogra00yeag/page/6, "Jeana Yeager Was Not Just Along for the Ride", "Chuck Yeager downs five becomes an 'Ace in a Day', "Escape and Evasion Case File for Flight Officer Charles (Chuck) E. Yeager", "The Story of Chuck Yeager, the Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier", "Chuck Yeager: Booming And Zooming (Part 1)", "WWII flying ace Chuck Yeager in extraordinary attack on 'nasty' and 'arrogant' British people", "Getting schooled with the Air Force's elite test pilots", "New U.S. Yeager is referred to by many as one of the greatest pilots of all time, and was ranked fifth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation in 2013. [117] Glennis Yeager died of ovarian cancer in 1990. His death, at a hospital, was announced on his official Twitter account and confirmed by John Nicoletti, a family friend. When he left home his father advised him never to gamble or buy a pick-up truck that was not built by General Motors. Yeager never sought the spotlight and was always a bit gruff. Yeager never forgot his roots and West Virginia named bridges, schools and Charlestons airport after him. ". At least that was my perspective when I was young. My accomplishments as a test pilot tell more about luck, happenstance and a persons destiny. [35] Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, Yeager broke two ribs when he fell from a horse. That night, he said, his family ate the goose for dinner. Yeagers feat was kept top secret for about a year when the world thought the British had broken the sound barrier first. Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account. [50][51] Returning to Muroc, during the latter half of 1953, Yeager was involved with the USAF team that was working on the X-1A, an aircraft designed to surpass Mach 2 in level flight. [67] In one instance in 1972, while visiting the No. He also had a keen interest in interacting with PAF personnel from various Pakistani Squadrons and helping them develop combat tactics.
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