Yeager’s decades of service and commitment to excellence in aviation will inspire future aviators for generations to come. He has also been inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame, the International Space Hall of Fame, the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and the California Hall of Fame. Yeager, Welch, Mutke, and Dittmar all made real contributions to the science of aviation. But every aviation milestone has been an incremental one few are truly revolutionary. Yeager flew 201 different types of aircraft and accumulated over 14,000 flight hours.įor his achievements and valor, Yeager earned a Bronze Star with “V” Device, a Distinguished Flying Cross with two bronze oak leaf clusters, a Silver Star with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Congressional Silver Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1947 Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier and, in hitting Mach 1. Sure, being the first to break the sound barrier becomes less glitzy when you have to pile on qualifications. Although the flight was meant to be his last, he continued flying with the Air Force until 2012 when he flew as a co-pilot in another F-15 past Mach 1 on the 65th anniversary of his record-breaking flight. Yeager fully retired from military test flying in 1997 after he flew past Mach 1 in an F-15D Eagle named Glamorous Glennis III on the 50th anniversary of his breaking of the sound barrier. Yeager following his final flight in 2012 (U.S. Yeager was unfazed by having a job that took him to the brink of death with every outing - such as the 1953 flight on which he safely landed his X-1A after hitting Mach 2.4 and then losing control of the aircraft for 51 seconds.Brig. “I was thunderstruck,” he wrote in his 1985 autobiography “Yeager.” “After all the anxiety, breaking the sound barrier turned out to be a perfectly paved speedway.” Yeager said he had noted a Mach 0.965 reading on his speedometer before it jumped off the scale without a bump. He then calmly brought the craft, which was also named for Glennis, who was by then his wife, gliding down to a dry lake bed, 14 minutes after it had been cut loose on a flight that was a significant step toward space exploration. But Yeager took the 31-foot (10 meter) X-1, powered by liquid oxygen and alcohol, to Mach 1.06, about 700 mph (1,126 kph) at 43,000 feet (13,000 meters), as if it were a routine flight. Neither Yeager nor aviation engineers knew if the plane - or the pilot - would be able to handle the unprecedented speed without breaking up. Because of the pain, he had to use a sawed-off broomstick to close the X-1’s cockpit before takeoff.Ī B-29 bomber carried the X-1 26,000 feet (7,925 m) over California’s Mojave Desert and let it go. He had broken two ribs in a horseback riding accident a few days before but did not tell his superiors for fear they would ground him. 14, 1947, in the bright orange Bell X-1 craft. Yeager was a 24-year-old captain, testing out a dozen planes a week, when he first outraced sound on Oct. Flying a P-51 Mustang named Glamorous Glennis in tribute to his girlfriend, Glennis Dickhouse, he was credited with 12 “kills” of German planes - including five in a single dogfight.Īfter the war he became a test pilot and was assigned to Muroc Air Force Base in California as part of the secret XS-1 project, which had a goal of hitting Mach 1, the speed of sound. Those attributes served Yeager well in World War Two. Wolfe said Yeager was blessed with “the right stuff” that made him a legendary test pilot but Yeager said it was more a matter of luck, better-than-average vision and a thorough knowledge of his planes. He considered them mere passengers “throwing the right switches on instructions from the ground.”Īuthor Tom Wolfe was so impressed by the mien of the rough-hewn man from Hamlin, West Virginia, that he made Yeager a prominent character in “The Right Stuff,” his 1979 book about the early days of the space program. space program because he never went to college but he was hardly heartbroken not to become an astronaut. Yeager was passed over for the burgeoning U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 just to work on the engines of airplanes, not to fly them. Yeager, an unlikely candidate to become one of the most famous aviators in history, joined the U.S. An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever,” Victoria Yeager said in the tweet. “It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. Yeager’s death was announced on his twitter account by his wife, Victoria. FILE PHOTO: General Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier, speaks to a crowd Decemduring the weeklong First Flight Centennial Celebration that is taking place at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
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