Yeager flew in an F-15 Eagle to mark the 50th anniversary of his historic X-1 flight in 1997 when he was 74 years old
The renowned US Air Force (USAF) officer and test pilot Chuck Yeager, also known as “The fasted man alive,” passed away at the age of 97.
Yeager tested the X-1 on October 14, 1947, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier, however, the achievement was not made public until 1948.
“An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest pilot,” his second wife, Victoria tweeted.
Other generations were also captivated by Yeager’s legacy because it was depicted in the book and the 1983 film, “The Right Stuff.”
“This is a sad day for America,” John Nicoletti, Yeager’s friend, and ground crew chief told CNN. “After he broke the sound barrier, we all now have permission to break barriers.”
Nicoletti claimed that due to Yeager’s advanced age and physical difficulties in recent years, he experienced a fall that resulted in problems. Yeager lived in Northern California, according to Nicoletti, but passed away at a hospital in Los Angeles.
“Yeager was never a quitter,” Nicoletti recalled of his friend. “He was an incredibly courageous man.”
Chuck Yeager, who was born on February 13th, 1923, in Myra, West Virginia, joined the US Army in September 1941, not long after receiving his high school diploma, and was assigned to the Army Air Corps. In 1943, he received his reserve flying officer commission and was assigned to the Eighth Air Force’s fighter command, which was based in England. During World War II, he flew 64 flights over Europe, downed 13 German aircraft, and was himself shot down over France (he escaped capture with the help of the French underground). He first worked as a test pilot after the war before receiving a regular rank as a captain in 1947.
Yeager was chosen to pilot the Bell X-1, a classified experimental aircraft designed to test the human pilot’s capabilities and the fixed-wing aircraft’s resistance to the extreme aerodynamic forces of sonic flight. He rode the X-1 while attached to a B-29 mother ship on October 14, 1947, over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California, reaching a height of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters). Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier when the X-1 launched independently to 40,000 feet (12,000 meters), which is equivalent to an altitude of about 662 miles (1,066 kilometers) per hour.
Yeager resigned from his position as assistant chief of test-flight operations at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1954 to join the Twelfth Air Force’s staff in West Germany. He left Edwards for a few ordinary jobs before coming back in 1962 as colonel and commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School. He assumed control of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing in 1968. In 1975, he retired from the air force as a brigadier general. Yeager, his autobiography, was released in 1985.
Yeager flew in an F-15 Eagle to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his historic X-1 flight in 1997 when he was 74 years old.
Additional source: Britannica
Photo by U.S. Air Force