Chuck Yeager, the historic test pilot portrayed in the movie " The Right Stuff ," is dead at the age of 97, according to a tweet posted on his account late Monday. He later regretted that his lack of a college education prevented him from becoming an astronaut. When he left home his father advised him never to gamble or buy a pick-up truck that was not built by General Motors. In his memoir, General Yeager said he was annoyed when people asked him if he had the right stuff, since he felt it implied a talent he was born with. [8], His cousin, Steve Yeager, was a professional baseball catcher. 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.. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. It wasnt a matter of not having airplanes that would fly at speeds like this. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. 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. It concluded with Yeager, 16 years on from his exploits in Harry Trumans America, in the 1963 of JFKs new frontier. You do it because its duty. Marc Cook. Gen. Charles "Chuck' Yeager, passed away. His last supersonic flight, in 2012 commemorated the 65th anniversary of his breaking of the sound barrier. On October 12, 1944, he attained "ace in a day" status, shooting down five enemy aircraft in one mission. In April 1962, Yeager made his only flight with Neil Armstrong. 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. By the time Chuck was five, the family were among the 600 inhabitants of nearby Hamlin. If youre willing to bleed, Uncle Sam will give you all the planes you want.. 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. She is the namesake of his sound-barrier breaking Bell X-1 aircraft, "Glamorous Glennis". He was 97. That year, he flew a chase aircraft for the civilian pilot Jackie Cochran as she became the first woman to fly faster than sound. Yeager told the project engineer Jack Ridley about the injury, which, crucially, prevented him from using his right hand to secure the X-1 hatch. He helped pave the way for the American space program by flying at Mach 1.05 roughly 805 mph at an altitude of 45,000 feet. 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. ". An Air Force captain at the time, he zoomed off in the plane, a Bell Aircraft X-1, at an altitude of 23,000 feet, and when he reached about 43,000 feet above the desert, historys first sonic boom reverberated across the floor of the dry lake beds. He ended up flying more than 360 types of aircraft and retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general. He said he had gotten up at dawn that day and went hunting, bagging a goose before his flight. [President] Kennedy is using this to make 'racial equality,' so do not speak to him, do not socialize with him, do not drink with him, do not invite him over to your house, and in six months he'll be gone. He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, receiving his best grades in geometry and typing. In 1988, Yeager was again invited to drive the pace car, this time at the wheel of an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. His wife, Victoria, announced . 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. The Marshall University community is remembering Brig. He said he was just doing his job. He retired in 1976 as a brigadier-general his wife thought he should have made a full general. The pair started dating shortly thereafter, and married in August 2003. He then went on to break several other speed and altitude records in the following years. Anyone can read what you share. Yeager became the first person to break the . Yeager was raised in Hamlin, West Virginia. President Gerald Ford presented the medal to Yeager in a ceremony at the White House on December 8, 1976. "[116] Yeager and Glennis moved to Grass Valley, California, after his retirement from the Air Force in 1975. He said the ride was nice, just like riding fast in a car.. That night, he said, his family ate the goose for dinner. He had joined another evader, fellow P-51 pilot 1st Lt Fred Glover,[20] in speaking directly to the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on June 12, 1944. As an evader, he received his choice of assignments and, because his new wife was pregnant, chose Wright Field to be near his home in West Virginia. Feb. 13, 2023. The aviation feat was kept secret for months. If I auger in (crash) tomorrow, it wont be with a frown on my face. He accomplished the feat in a Bell X-1, a wild, high-flying rocket-propelled orange airplane that he nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis," after his first wife who died in 1990. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done,' Bridenstine said in a statement. When youre fooling around with something you dont know much about, there has to be apprehension. The children contended that D'Angelo, at least 35 years Yeager's junior, had married him for his fortune. There is anecdotal evidence that American pilot, Yeager received the DSM in the Army design, since the. He reportedly could see enemy fighters from 50 miles away and ended up fighting in several wars. But it is there, on the record and in my memory". Without a hitch, he resumed combat, and by the end of the war was credited with 12.5 aerial victories, including five in one day. In 1947 Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier; and, in hitting Mach 1, he set the US on a path that was to lead to Neil Armstrongs 1969 moon landing. [47] The X-1 he flew that day was later put on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. 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. [120] The book and movie centered on the daring test pilots of the space program's early days. Norm Healey was visiting from Canada and reading about Yeager's accomplishments. She died of ovarian cancer in December 1990. 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. BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Legendary pilot and West Virginia native Chuck Yeager died Monday night, his wife said on social media. In a tweet, Victoria Yeager wrote: "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET.". The resulting burns to his face required extensive and agonizing medical care. In his memoir, General Yeager wrote that through all his years as a pilot, he had made sure to learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment., It may not have accorded with his image, but, as he told it: I was always afraid of dying. [99], The Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer auxiliary of the USAF, awards the Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager Award to its senior members as part of its Aerospace Education program. 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. Legendary test pilot and World War II fighter ace Gen. Charles E. Yeager died Monday night, according to a tweet released by his wife Victoria. Then-Col. Charles "Chuck" Yeager in New York City, New York, Oct. 18, 1962. In 2005 President George W Bush promoted him to major-general. 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.. He is survived by his wife; two daughters, Susan Yeager and Sharon Yeager Flick; and a son, Don. He was 97. [92] Despite his lack of higher education, West Virginia's Marshall University named its highest academic scholarship the Society of Yeager Scholars in his honor. XBB.1.5 Now Predominant COVID-19 Variant In Oregon. After several turns, and an altitude loss of approximately 95,000 feet, Yeager ejected from the plane. Yeagers death is a tremendous loss to our nation, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. [3] When he was five years old, his family moved to Hamlin, West Virginia. He started off as an aircraft mechanic and, despite becoming severely airsick during his first airplane ride, signed up for a program that allowed enlisted men to become pilots. He was 97. He said, You dont concentrate on risks. And on 1 October and 14 October 1947 at Muroc and latterly 15 minutes before Yeager the test pilot George Welch, diving his XP-86 Sabre jet, probably passed Mach 1. We will miss this legend and continue to break barriers in his honor. said Maj. Gen. Christopher Azzano, commander of the Air Force Test Center at Edwards. And he understood that, just because he understood machines so well. "[57][58] In his autobiography, Dwight details how Yeager's leadership led to discriminatory treatment throughout his training at Edwards Air Force Base. Contact Us. An accident during a December 1963 test flight in one of the school's NF-104s resulted in serious injuries. "An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever," his wife wrote on Monday. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.". His career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army, assigned to the Army Air Forces in 1941. There he flew 127 missions. [96], Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named in his honor. Glennis died in 1990. Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager died Dec. 7. [67] In one instance in 1972, while visiting the No. Yeager was a laconic Appalachian whose education ended with a high-school diploma. Escaping via resistance networks to Spain, he was back in England by May, and resumed flying. Yeager was born on Feb. 13, 1923, in the tiny West Virginia town of Myra. 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 . As I've grown older and now have kids and a family and a wife, I appreciate it much more now, his courage. He was depicted breaking the sound barrier in the opening scene. [75] Yeager was incensed over the incident and demanded U.S. He was also a consultant on several Yeager-themed video games. This. In the fall of 1953, he was dispatched to an air base on Okinawa in the Pacific to test a MiG-15 Russian-built fighter that had been flown into American hands by a North Korean defector. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian award, from President Ronald Reagan in 1985. If there is such a thing as the right stuff in piloting, then it is experience. Yeager started from humble beginnings in Myra, W.Va., and many people didn't really learn about him until decades after he broke the sound barrier all because of a book and popular 1983 movie called The Right Stuff. The young Yeager was a hunter with superb eyesight a sportsman, and not much of a scholar, but he did read Jack London. [80] In 1986, he was invited to drive the Chevrolet Corvette pace car for the 70th running of the Indianapolis 500. This story has been shared 135,794 times. His life was famously portrayed in Tom Wolfes 1979 book The Right Stuff which was later adapted into an Oscar-winning movie chronicling the postwar research in high-speed aircraft that led to NASAs Project Mercury. At least that was my perspective when I was young. Chuck Yeager, standing next to the "Glamorous Glennis," the Bell X-1 experimental plane with which he first broke the sound barrier. He flew more than 150 military aircraft, logging more than 10,000 hours in the air. Warner Bros./ Courtesy: Everett Collection. The trick is to enjoy the years remaining, he said in Yeager: An Autobiography., I havent yet done everything, but by the time Im finished, I wont have missed much, he wrote. He had no interest in flying but he was good at acquiring practical knowledge and his high-school graduation in summer 1941 came five months before Pearl Harbor. In the 2019 documentary series Chasing the Moon, the filmmakers made the claim that Yeager instructed staff and participants at the school that "Washington is trying to cram the nigger down our throats. American pilot who was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. [84] The chase plane for the flight was an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Bob Hoover, a longtime test, fighter, and aerobatic pilot who had been Yeager's wingman for the first supersonic flight. He also had a keen interest in interacting with PAF personnel from various Pakistani Squadrons and helping them develop combat tactics. [11], At the time of his flight training acceptance, he was a crew chief on an AT-11. Throughout his life, he flew more than 360 different types of aircraft over a 70-year period, and continued to fly for two decades after retirement as a consultant pilot for the United States Air Force. The X-1A came along six years later, and it flew at twice the speed of sound. 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. I don't know if I can get back to base or not. Yeager broke the sound barrier when he tested the X-1 in October 1947, although. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star. [52] For this feat, Yeager was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) in 1954. Yeager himself even made a cameo as Fred, a bartender at Pancho's Palace. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you. His wife,. The legend grew, culminating with secular canonisation in Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff (1979), a romance on the birth of the US space programme, on Yeager himself, and even on Panchos (and its foul-mouthed female proprietor, Florence Pancho Barnes). His high number of flight hours and maintenance experience qualified him to become a functional test pilot of repaired aircraft, which brought him under the command of Colonel Albert Boyd, head of the Aeronautical Systems Flight Test Division.[31]. [21] "I raised so much hell that General Eisenhower finally let me go back to my squadron" Yeager said. 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. Gen. Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager, the first pilot to fly aircraft exceeding the speed of sound, has died at the age of 97. , Police arrest man linked to sexual assault of child, Mountain lion causes school to shelter in place, Martinez residents warned not to eat food grown in, Video: Benches clear in fight at high school hoops, SF police officers pose as prostitutes, bust 30 Johns, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. [119], Yeager appeared in a Texas advertisement for George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. "I was at the right place at the right time.