He was 97. He left Muroc in 1954 and in that decade and the 1960s, he held commands in Germany, France, Spain and the US. If I auger in (crash) tomorrow, it wont be with a frown on my face. Yeager remained in the U.S. Army Air Forces after the war, becoming a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base), following graduation from Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School (Class 46C). It's more than that, though. Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dead at 97 - KHOU ", Yeager strikes a pose with Sam Shepard, who played him in the movie version of The Right Stuff. Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, dead at 97 Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Is Dead at 97 Wells died Wednesday of illness related to COVID-19. You don't do it to get your damn picture on the front page of the newspaper. This was the sound barrier, which no aviator had crossed and lived to tell the tale. 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, had died. Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97 - Yahoo! News "An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever," his wife wrote on Monday. Pilot Chuck Yeager Dies At 97, Had 'The Right Stuff' And Then Some We've received your submission. This version corrects that Yeager flew an F-15, not an X-15, when he was 79. After all the anticipation to achieve this moment, it really was a letdown, General Yeager wrote in his best-selling memoir Yeager (1985, with Leo Janos). You can see the treetops in the bottom of the pictures., Yeager flew an F-80 under a Charleston bridge at 450 mph on Oct. 10, 1948, according to newspaper accounts. Yeagers feat was kept top secret for about a year when the world thought the British had broken the sound barrier first. Legendary airman Chuck Yeager the first pilot in history confirmed to break the sound barrier died Monday, his wife announced. And he understood that, just because he understood machines so well. In December 1953, General Yeager flew the X-1A plane at nearly two and a half times the speed of sound after barely surviving a spin, setting a world speed record. General Yeager, center,in front of his P-51 Mustang with his ground crew when he was an Army Air Forces fighter pilot in Europe. Away from The Right Stuff, some critics charged that the vastly experienced Yeager had simply ignored advice about the complexities of the new jet. On October 12, 1944, he became the first pilot in his group to make "ace in a day," downing five enemy aircraft in a single mission. A movie of the same name followed in 1983, with Sam Shepard as Yeager. He was 97. He was 97. Vice President Mike Pence said he will escort Victoria Yeager, the widow of retired Air Force Brig. XBB.1.5 Now Predominant COVID-19 Variant In Oregon. Chuck Yeager, a military test pilot who became the first pilot to break the sound barrier. [21] "I raised so much hell that General Eisenhower finally let me go back to my squadron" Yeager said. Dec 8, 2020 08:46 Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break sound barrier, has died at age 97 The World War II Air Force fighter pilot ace showed he had the "right stuff" when in 1947 he became the. The pilots and their families had quarters little better than shacks, the days were scorching and the nights frigid, and the landscape was barren. He had reached a speed of 700 miles an hour, breaking the sound barrier and dispelling the long-held fear that any plane flying at or beyond the speed of sound would be torn apart by shock waves. 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 elusive yet unmistakable right stuff, died on Monday in Los Angeles. Yeager married 45-year-old Victoria Scott DAngelo in 2003. On later visits, he often buzzed the town. When he was asked to repeat the feat for photographers, Yeager replied: You should never strafe the same place twice cause the gunners will be waiting for you.. He retired on March 1, 1975. Chuck Yeager, WWII test pilot who broke the sound barrier, dies at 97 Chuck Yeager, test pilot who broke sound barrier, dies at 97 National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0, The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, South Korean Order of National Security Merit, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, "Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Is Dead at 97", "Four-Year-Old Boy Kills Baby Sister with Gun", https://archive.org/details/yeagerautobiogra00yeag/page/6, "Jeana Yeager Was Not Just Along for the Ride", "Chuck Yeager downs five becomes an 'Ace in a Day', "Escape and Evasion Case File for Flight Officer Charles (Chuck) E. Yeager", "The Story of Chuck Yeager, the Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier", "Chuck Yeager: Booming And Zooming (Part 1)", "WWII flying ace Chuck Yeager in extraordinary attack on 'nasty' and 'arrogant' British people", "Getting schooled with the Air Force's elite test pilots", "New U.S. He graduated from high school in June 1941. I live just down the street from his mother, said Gene Brewer, retired publisher of the weekly Lincoln Journal. The family later moved to Hamlin, the county seat. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. Yeager flew for what was then his monthly USAF pay of $283. The couple prospered because of Yeager's best-selling autobiography, speaking engagements, and commercial ventures. She died of ovarian cancer in December 1990. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? In the early 1970s he was a US adviser to the Pakistan air force. Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97 Chuck Yeager, World War II ace and first pilot to break sound barrier He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, receiving his best grades in geometry and typing. James was perhaps best known in the gun . Sure, I was apprehensive, he said in 1968. He finished the war with 11.5 official victories, including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter, a German Messerschmitt Me 262 that he shot down as it was on final approach for landing. When he left home his father advised him never to gamble or buy a pick-up truck that was not built by General Motors. It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. who announced Yeager's death on December 7 on his Twitter page. He even lobbied to change one of the plane's control surfaces so that it could safely exceed Mach 1. Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter pilot, the first person to break the sound barrier and one of the subjects of Philip Kaufman 's The Right Stuff has died. [24] Yeager said both pilots bailed out. In 1988, Yeager was again invited to drive the pace car, this time at the wheel of an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. As I've grown older and now have kids and a family and a wife, I appreciate it much more now, his courage. An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of . Yeager continued working on the X-1 and the X1A, in which he became the second man, after Scott Crossfield, to fly at twice the speed of sound, Mach 2.44, on 12 December 1953. 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). 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]. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009, in Sacramento, California. [88], In 1973, Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, arguably aviation's highest honor. His three-war active-duty flying career spanned more than 30 years and took him to many parts of the world, including the Korean War zone and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. He was 97. Chuck Yeager, standing next to the "Glamorous Glennis," the Bell X-1 experimental plane with which he first broke the sound barrier. [122] In August 2008, the California Court of Appeal ruled for Yeager, finding that his daughter Susan had breached her duty as trustee. 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. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Yeager, from a small town in the hills of West Virginia, flew for more than 60 years, including piloting an X-15 to near 1,000 mph at Edwards in October 2002 at age 79. Nonetheless, the exploit ranked alongside the Wright brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903 and Charles Lindberghs solo fight to Paris in 1927 as epic events in the history of aviation. The first time I ever saw a jet, he said, I shot it down. It was a Messerschmitt Me 262, and he was the first in the 363rd to do so. It was a dangerous quest one that had killed other pilots in other planes. They had four children (Susan, Don, Mickey, and Sharon). Brigadier General Chuck Yeager Left 'A Legacy of Strength - AMAC Sam Shepard received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Yeager in the 1983 film. Flying Magazine ranked Yeager number 5 on its 2013 list of The 51 Heroes of Aviation; for many years, he was the highest-ranked living person on the list. His wife,. His death, at a hospital, was announced on his official Twitter account and confirmed by John Nicoletti, a family friend. He then went on to break several other speed and altitude records in the following years. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever. As Armstrong suggested that they do a touch-and-go, Yeager advised against it, telling him "You may touch, but you ain't gonna go!" NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called his death "a tremendous. He was 97. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff, and the 1983 film it inspired. I thought he was going to take me off the roof. Yeager had unusually sharp vision (a visual acuity rated 20/10), which once enabled him to shoot a deer at 600yd (550m). Chuck Yeager - Wikipedia Warner Bros./Getty Images 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. You concentrate on results. The previous year, he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier. [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. Pilot Chuck Yeager Dies At 97, Had 'The Right Stuff' And Then Some Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 and moved to a ranch in Cedar Ridge in Northern California where he continued working as a consultant to the Air Force and Northrop Corp. and became well known to younger generations as a television pitchman for automotive parts and heat pumps. 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. [60][61][62][f], In 1966, Yeager took command of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, the Philippines, whose squadrons were deployed on rotational temporary duty (TDY) in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. In 1986, President Reagan appointed Yeager to the Rogers Commission that investigated the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. His flight helmet even cracked the canopy, and a scratchy archive recording from the day preserves Yeager's voice as he wrestles back control of the aircraft: "Oh! Chuck Yeager, test pilot who broke sound barrier, dies at 97 But he joined a flight program for enlisted men in July 1942, figuring it would get him out of kitchen detail and guard duty. Yeager nicknamed the plane "Glamourous Glennis" after his wife. [19], Despite a regulation prohibiting "evaders" (escaped pilots) from flying over enemy territory again, the purpose of which was to prevent resistance groups from being compromised by giving the enemy a second chance to possibly capture him, Yeager was reinstated to flying combat. Litigation ensued, in which his children accused D'Angelo of "undue influence" on Yeager, and Yeager accused his children of diverting millions of dollars from his assets. In a tweet from Yeager's . Feb. 13, 2023. 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. BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Legendary pilot and West Virginia native Chuck Yeager died Monday night, his wife said on social media. Stories About Chuck Yeager - CBS News Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account: "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9 pm ET. He named his aircraft Glamorous Glen[15][16] after his girlfriend, Glennis Faye Dickhouse, who became his wife in February 1945. He'd been fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) for some time and that is believed to be the cause of his death, although no official statement has been released. He was depicted breaking the sound barrier in the opening scene. Chuck Yeager Dead At 97 - AVweb His last supersonic flight, in 2012 commemorated the 65th anniversary of his breaking of the sound barrier. After his famous flight in the X-1, he continued testing newer, faster and more dangerous aircraft. "He could give extremely detailed reports that the engineers found extremely useful. In 2005 President George W Bush promoted him to major-general. This story has been shared 126,899 times. Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions during World War II, including five on a single mission. When youre fooling around with something you dont know much about, there has to be apprehension. General Yeager's 14-minute sprint over the Mojave Desert on Oct. 14, 1947, is considered the most important airplane flight since Orville Wright swept over the sands of Kitty Hawk for 40 yards . In this Sept. 4, 1985, file photo, Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, poses at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in front of the rocket-powered Bell X-IE plane that he . But Yeager was more than a pilot: In several test flights before breaking the sound barrier, he studied his machine, analyzing the way it handled as it went faster and faster. Fr @VictoriaYeage11 It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. The pilot later commanded fighter squadrons in Germany and Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and was promoted to brigadier general in 1969. 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. [22] Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover.