Aviator and test pilot, born in Myra, West Virginia, USA. A fighter pilot ace during World War 2, he became the first to break the sound barrier, when he flew the Bell X-1 rocket 670 mph in level flight (14 Oct 1947). He broke the sound barrier for the last time aged 79 when his F-15 Eagle reached Mach 1·45 (26 Oct 2002). He held various air-force command assignments during 195462. He was vice-commander of the Ramstein, Germany, Air Base (19689), US defence representative to Pakistan (19713), and director of aerospace safety at Norton Air Force Base in California (19735). His autobiography, Press On, was published in 1985. He appears as the main character in Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff, and as the epitome of that virtue he appeared in many commercial endorsements.
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born on February 13, 1923, in Lincoln County, West Virginia) was a general officer in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot.
His career began in World War II as a U.S. Army Air Force P-51 fighter pilot, and after the war, he remained in the Air Force and became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.
Biography
Yeager was born to farming parents Susie Mae and Albert Hal Yeager in Myra, West Virginia and graduated from high school in Hamlin, West Virginia.
Air Force career
Yeager enlisted as a private in the US Army Air Forces on September 12, 1941, and became an aircraft mechanic at Victorville Army Air Field, California. He was selected for flight training as a flying sergeant in July 1942, and quickly exhibited an outstanding natural talent as a pilot, receiving his wings and a promotion to Flight Officer at Luke Field, Arizona, on March 10, 1943.
Stationed in the United Kingdom at RAF Leiston, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat (he named his aircraft Glamorous Glen after his girlfriend, Glennis Faye Dickhouse, who became his wife in February 1945) with the 363rd Fighter Squadron.
Despite a regulation that "evaders" (escaped pilots) could not fly over enemy territory again to avoid compromising Resistance allies, Yeager was reinstated to flying combat. Yeager had joined a bomber pilot evader, Capt. Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover. Yeager later credited his postwar success in the Air Force to this decision, saying that his test pilot career followed naturally from being a decorated combat ace with a good kill record, along with being an airplane maintenance man prior to attending pilot school. In part because of his maintenance background, Yeager frequently served in his flying units as a "maintenance officer", the liaison between pilots and mechanics.
Yeager possessed outstanding eyesight (rated as 20/10), flying skills, and combat leadership; Yeager's quick thinking and reflexes saved the B-17 crew, but because he was not yet cleared for flying combat again, his gun camera film and credit for the kill were given to his wingman, Eddie Simpson.
Yeager, after being turned down three times by a promotion board because of a court-martial on his enlisted record, was commissioned a second lieutenant while at Leiston and was promoted to captain before the end of his tour.
Yeager remained in the Air Force (USAF) after the war, becoming a test pilot and eventually being selected to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight. Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 m).
On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not seal the airplane's hatch by himself. Ridley rigged up a device (really just the end of a broom handle, used as an extra lever) to allow Yeager to seal the hatch of the airplane. Yeager's flight recorded Mach 1.06. However, Yeager was always quick to point out that the public paid attention to whole numbers and that the next milestone would be exceeding Mach 2. Yeager's X-1 is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Yeager was awarded the MacKay and Collier Trophies in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight, and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954. 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. After they were bested, Ridley and Yeager decided to beat rival Crossfield's speed record in a flight series that they dubbed "Operation NACA Weep."
Yeager was foremost a fighter pilot and held several squadron and wing commands. and from 1957 to 1960 the F-100D-equipped 1st Fighter Day Squadron (later, while still under Yeager's command, re-designated the 306th Tactical Fighter Squadron) at George Air Force Base, California, and Morón Air Base, Spain.
In 1962, after completion of a year's studies at the Air War College, he was the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, which produced astronauts for NASA and the USAF, after its redesignation from the USAF Flight Test Pilot School. Between December 1963 and January 1964, Yeager completed five flights in the NASA M2-F1 lifting body. General Yeager's awards and decorations include:
Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters Bronze Star Medal with “V” device Purple Heart Air Medal with 10 oak leaf clusters Air Force Commendation Medal Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with oak leaf cluster Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. Presidential Medal of FreedomPost-retirement history
On March 1, 1975, following assignments in Germany and Pakistan, he retired from the Air Force at Norton Air Force Base, but still occasionally flew for the USAF and NASA as a consulting test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base. For his consultant work to the Test Pilot School Commander at Edwards Air Force Base, Yeager is paid one dollar annually, along with all the flying time he wants.
Through the years, Yeager delivered a number of aviation and test pilot related speeches to a variety of groups ranging from test pilots, Air Force Association banquets, Civil Air Patrol, Experimental Aircraft Association, and even the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) National Meeting entitled "Breaking Barriers" in Honolulu in October 1995. Yeager easily adapted his talk to a given audience on the importance of stabilators and their role in giving America air combat supremacy. In 1990, Yeager was included with the first class of inductees into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Yeager set a number of light, general aircraft performance records for speed, range, and endurance. On one such flight, Yeager did an emergency landing as a result of fuel exhaustion. The chase plane for the flight was an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Bob Hoover, a famous air-show pilot, and his wingman for the first supersonic flight. Had Yeager gone to the flight surgeon with his broken ribs before the X-1 flight, he would have been grounded and Hoover would have flown the supersonic flight test, with Bud Anderson flying chase. This was Yeager's last official flight with the Air Force. Gen Yeager to the rank of Major General on the retired list. In 2005, President Bush granted the promotion of both Yeager and (posthumously) air-power pioneer Billy Mitchell to Major General.
Yeager, who never attended college and was often modest about his background, is considered by some to be one of the greatest pilots of all time. Marshall University has named its highest academic scholarship, the Society of Yeager Scholars, in his honor. Additionally, Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after him. The Interstate 77 bridge over the Kanawha River in Charleston is named for Yeager.
The state of West Virginia honored Yeager with a marker along Corridor G (part of U.S. 119) in his home Lincoln County on October 19, 2006, as well as renamed part of the highway the Yeager Highway.
He is now fully retired from military test flight, after having maintained that status for three decades after his official retirement from the Air Force. Yeager served on the presidential commission that investigated the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-51-L. The Sacramento ABC affiliate sent a crew to Yeager's home, a few miles northeast of the city, following the Challenger disaster that was aired on Nightline. Yeager did admit that there is a risk in any aeronautical flight test of which the Space Shuttle fits, that crews accept that risk, and these same crews understand the consequences of that risk better than anyone else.
Yeager now resides in the Penn Valley area of Grass Valley, California, where he is a widower and a local hero.
The Right Stuff
Yeager was a primary subject of Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, and of the movie made from it, in which he is played by Sam Shepard. He was the prototype flier with the "right stuff", although Yeager denied any such attribute, saying it was just a combination of "luck" and "knowing the airplane" (in his autobiography, Yeager concedes that he does believe in the concept of "the right stuff"). Yeager was actually partially responsible for the design of the X-1. Yeager, on a referral, helped Wolfe on technical aspects of aviation for the book, The Right Stuff.
Controversies
Many knowledgeable aviation historians contend that American pilot George Welch broke the sound barrier while diving an XP-86 Sabre two weeks before Yeager, and again just 30 minutes before. In a period documentary, the USAF said that Yeager and the X-1 were the first to break the sound barrier "in level flight" (the X-1 was actually climbing when it broke the sound barrier, which is more difficult), which may imply acknowledgement that Welch had broken the sound barrier in a dive before Yeager broke it in the X-1.
On February 26, 1945, Yeager married Glennis Dickhouse (died 1990). Yeager contends they simply want more money.
On April 22, 2006, the Associated Press reported that daughter Susan Yeager has been ordered to pay her father nearly $1 million for violating her duties as his trustee. According to the report, a Nevada County Superior Court referee had ruled that Susan Yeager improperly profited when she had her father's trust buy her out of property that the two co-owned in Northern California near Nevada City. The decision signed by a judge in late March 2006 found Susan Yeager, currently living in Hawaii, could keep a family condominium Yeager had deeded first to her, and then to his new wife. But Susan Yeager was ordered to reimburse the retired general's trust more than $900,000 in profits and back taxes incurred in the land sale, as well as an estimated $38,000 in court costs.
Trivia
In the fictional Star Trek universe, two Starfleet starships called USS Yeager are presumably named in Yeager's honor. Also in the fictional Star Trek universe, Cadet Wesley Crusher describes a flight maneuver called a Yeager Loop, presumably named in Yeager's honor.Video games
Chuck Yeager acted as a technical consultant for and appeared in two flight simulator video games produced by Electronic Arts.
Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer (Electronic Arts, 1987) Chuck Yeager's Air Combat (Electronic Arts, 1991)
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