Celebrating the 100th birthday of General Chuck Yeager. [22] Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover. On Dec. 12, 1953, Chuck Yeager set two more altitude and speed records in the X-1A: 74,700 feet and Mach 2.44. [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. [75] Yeager was incensed over the incident and demanded U.S. He was worried that the injury would remove him from the mission and reported that he went to a civilian doctor in nearby Rosamond, who taped his ribs. The public was only told about the mission in June 1948. He flew his 61st and final mission on January 15, 1945, and returned to the United States in early February 1945. 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.". Chuck Yeager at Edwards Air Force Base in California, on October 14, 1997. Jason W. Edwards/Agence France-Presse, via U.S. Air Force and Getty Images. His first wife, the former Glennis Dickhouse, with whom he had four children, died in 1990. Yeager never sought the spotlight and was always a bit gruff. In an age of media-made heroes, he is the real deal, Edwards Air Force Base historian Jim Young said in August 2006 at the unveiling of a bronze statue of Yeager. ". In the decade that followed, he helped usher in the age of military jets and spaceflight. 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. 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. 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. It was not until 10 June 1948 that the US finally announced its success, but Yeager was already soaring towards myth. 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. In 1945 he and Glennis married. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff, and the 1983 film it inspired. [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. Chuck Yeager spent the last years of his life doing what he truly loved: flying airplanes, speaking to aviation groups and fishing for golden trout in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. ", Yeager strikes a pose with Sam Shepard, who played him in the movie version of The Right Stuff. Gen. Chuck Yeager, first person to break the sound barrier, dies at 97 [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. Yeager nicknamed the plane "Glamourous Glennis" after his wife. Glennis died in 1990. Chuck Yeager, who has died aged 97, stands alongside the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh in the history of American aviation. 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. He said he was just doing his job. Chuck Yeager, Pioneer of Supersonic Flight, Dies at Age 97 Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer was Electronic Art's top-selling game for 1987. Retired Air Force Brig. 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. Just over a year ago, December 7, 2020, an aviation icon, U.S. Air Force Brig. [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. She and the four children of his first marriage survive him. Supersonic pioneer Chuck Yeager passes away at 97 Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager (/jer/ YAY-gr, February 13, 1923 December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. General Chuck Yeager dies at 97 | KRON4 Yeager's death was announced on his official. Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Is Dead at 97, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/us/chuck-yeager-dead.html. Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97 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. She died of ovarian cancer in December 1990. Renowned test pilot Chuck Yeager dies - Edwards Air Force Base 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.. [97], Yeager was an honorary board member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope. [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). December 7, 2020 8:30pm. Ketia Daniel, founder of BHM Cleaning Co., is BestReviews cleaning expert. After World War II, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of . He married Victoria DAngelo in 2003. 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 . He reportedly could see enemy fighters from 50 miles away and ended up fighting in several wars. Steely 'Right Stuff' test pilot Chuck Yeager dies 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. "Chuck's bravery and accomplishments are a testament to the enduring strength that made him a true American original, and NASA's Aeronautics work owes much to his brilliant contributions to aerospace science. 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. [52], The new record flight, however, did not entirely go to plan, since shortly after reaching Mach 2.44, Yeager lost control of the X-1A at about 80,000ft (24,000m) due to inertia coupling, a phenomenon largely unknown at the time. With the aircraft simultaneously rolling, pitching, and yawing out of control, Yeager dropped 51,000ft (16,000m) in less than a minute before regaining control at around 29,000ft (8,800m). [119], Yeager appeared in a Texas advertisement for George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. [12] He received his pilot wings and a promotion to flight officer at Luke Field, Arizona, where he graduated from Class 43C on March 10, 1943. His last supersonic flight, in 2012 commemorated the 65th anniversary of his breaking of the sound barrier. After climbing to a near-record altitude, the plane's controls became ineffective, and it entered a flat spin. He said, You dont concentrate on risks. As I've grown older and now have kids and a family and a wife, I appreciate it much more now, his courage. 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". The locals in the nearby village of Yoxford, he recalled, resented having 7,000 Yanks descend on them, their pubs and their women, and were rude and nasty.. When youre fooling around with something you dont know much about, there has to be apprehension. Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account. "[57][58] In his autobiography, Dwight details how Yeager's leadership led to discriminatory treatment throughout his training at Edwards Air Force Base. Yeager was a laconic Appalachian whose education ended with a high-school diploma. Yeager was raised in Hamlin, West Virginia. He left Muroc in 1954 and in that decade and the 1960s, he held commands in Germany, France, Spain and the US. He flew more than 150 military aircraft, logging more than 10,000 hours in the air. In December 1949, Muroc was renamed Edwards Air Force Base, and it became a center for advanced aviation research leading to the space program. Yeager went into the history books after his flight in the Bell X-1 experimental rocket plane in 1947.