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Yeager was born Feb. 23, 1923, in Myra, a tiny community on the Mud River deep in an Appalachian hollow about 40 miles southwest of Charleston. 1 of 2. They had to wait for rescue. 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. 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. The Interstate 64/Interstate 77 bridge over the Kanawha River in Charleston is named in his honor. The Air Force kept the feat a secret, an outgrowth of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, but in December 1947, Aviation Week magazine revealed that the sound barrier had been broken; the Air Force finally acknowledged it in June 1948. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff, and the 1983 film it inspired. 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 said he had gotten up at dawn that day and went hunting, bagging a goose before his flight. He trained as an Army Air Corps mechanic, but by July 1942 he was flight training in California, where he met his wife-to-be, Glennis Dickhouse. He flew more than 150 military aircraft, logging more than 10,000 hours in the air. (Yeager himself had only a high school education, so he was not eligible to become an astronaut like those he trained.) 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 . [6], Yeager's participation in the test pilot training program for NASA included controversial behavior. Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions during World War II, including five on a single mission. My beginnings back in West Virginia tell who I am to this day, Yeager wrote. But you dont let that affect your job., The modest Yeager said in 1947 he could have gone even faster had the plane carried more fuel. He was also one of the first American pilots to fly a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, after its pilot, No Kum-sok, defected to South Korea. (Photo by Jason Merritt . After World War II, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. 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.. His father was an oil and gas driller and a farmer. hide caption. If I auger in (crash) tomorrow, it wont be with a frown on my face. 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. 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. [98] On August 25, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that Yeager would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum's yearlong exhibit. Yeager's wife,. He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, receiving his best grades in geometry and typing. In addition to his flying skills, Yeager also had "better than perfect" vision: 20/10. Chuck Yeager (@GenChuckYeager) December 8, 2020 In 1947, Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket 700 mph at 43,000 feet, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight. 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. Master Sgt. 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. . One day he took a ride with a maintenance officer flight-testing a plane he had serviced and promptly threw up over the back seat. He returned to combat during the Vietnam War, flying several missions a month in twin-engine B-57 Canberras making bombing and strafing runs over South Vietnam. Yeager was a rare aviator, someone who understood planes in ways that other pilots just don't. 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. What's the least exercise we can get away with? 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). The young Yeager was a hunter with superb eyesight a sportsman, and not much of a scholar, but he did read Jack London. The couple have four children. On October 12, 1944, he attained "ace in a day" status, shooting down five enemy aircraft in one mission. [18] He was awarded the Bronze Star for helping a navigator, Omar M. "Pat" Patterson, Jr., to cross the Pyrenees. 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. And the X-1 buffeted like a bucking horse as it approached the speed of sound Mach 1 about 700 miles per hour at altitude. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you. his death was announced on his official Twitter account. Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the "right stuff" when in. [29] He also expressed bitterness at his treatment in England during World War II, describing the British as "arrogant" and "nasty". 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.. [65][67] Yeager recalled "the Pakistanis whipped the Indians asses in the sky the Pakistanis scored a three-to-one kill ratio, knocking out 102 Russian-made Indian jets and losing 34 airplanes of their own". He played "Fred", a bartender at "Pancho's Place", which was most appropriate, as Yeager said, "if all the hours were ever totaled, I reckon I spent more time at her place than in a cockpit over those years". James was perhaps best known in the gun . The Ughknown was a poke through Jell-O. [17] He escaped to Spain on March 30, 1944, with the help of the Maquis (French Resistance) and returned to England on May 15, 1944. [75] Yeager was incensed over the incident and demanded U.S. It is referred to as a Special Congressional Silver Medal in the President's Daily Diary (also see for a list of ceremony attendees). He was once shot down over German-held France but escaped with the help of French partisans. I live just down the street from his mother, said Gene Brewer, retired publisher of the weekly Lincoln Journal. It might sound funny, but Ive never owned an airplane in my life. In November, he shot down another four planes in one day. Renowned test pilot Chuck Yeager dies Published Dec. 9, 2020 By 412th Test Wing Public Affairs EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- Famed test pilot, retired Brig. [65][66][67] He arrived in Pakistan at a time when tensions with India were at a high level. [33][34] Under the National Security Act of 1947, the USAAF became the United States Air Force (USAF) on September18. You do it because it's duty. Here's Why That Never Happened", "Brigadier General Charles "Chuck" Yeager", "Chuck Yeager the flying legend breaks the final barrier", "Chuck's accounts on his visit to the K-2 in an F-86", "Pakistan Air Force: Undoubtedly 'Second to None'! 1953, when he flew an X-1A to a record of more than 1,600 mph. IE 11 is not supported. Chuck Yeager with Glamorous Glennis, the plane in which he broke the sound barrier in 1947. [42] The success of the mission was not announced to the public for nearly eight months, until June 10, 1948. "An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever," his wife wrote on Monday. But it is there, on the record and in my memory". Chuck Yeager's death was announced on Twitter on Monday night by his second wife Victoria Yeager was the son of farmers from West Virginia and he became one of the world's finest fighter. There is anecdotal evidence that American pilot, Yeager received the DSM in the Army design, since the. It's your job. After serving as head of aerospace safety for the Air Force, he retired as a brigadier general in 1975. 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. 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. [86] Later that month, he was the recipient of the Tony Jannus Award for his achievements. 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. This was the sound barrier, which no aviator had crossed and lived to tell the tale. Subsequently he represented ACDelco (a General Motors company), lectured, worked as an aviation consultant, and continued to fly supersonic, and other, aircraft. She and the four children of his first marriage survive him. Mike Ives and Neil Vigdor contributed reporting. Sure, I was apprehensive, he said in 1968. Glennis died in 1990. In 1962, he became the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, which trained and produced astronauts for NASA and the Air Force. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009, in Sacramento, California. [65][67][71] Yeager also flew around in his Beechcraft Queen Air, a small passenger aircraft that was assigned to him by the Pentagon, picking up shot-down Indian fighter pilots. 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. 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". Sixteen months later he was a non-commissioned officer with the 363rd Fighter Squadron based at Leiston, Suffolk three concrete runways surrounded by a sea of mud flying a North American P-51 Mustang. News of the then-astounding accomplishment was kept from the public until June 1948 but that didnt matter to Yeager. [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. Yeager nicknamed the plane "Glamourous Glennis" after his wife. After high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he didn't have the education credentials for flight training. Yeager reportedly did not believe that Ed Dwight, the first African American pilot admitted into the program, should be a part of it. [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. [67] In one instance in 1972, while visiting the No. [121] Subsequent to the commencement of their relationship, a bitter dispute arose between Yeager, his children and D'Angelo. Escaping via resistance networks to Spain, he was back in England by May, and resumed flying. (AP) - Retired Air Force Brig. Yeager would get back to base. Yeager died Monday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement, calling the death "a tremendous loss to our nation." "Gen. Yeager's pioneering and innovative spirit advanced. The documentary was screened at film festivals, aired on public television in the United States, and won an Emmy Award. Retired Air Force Brig. [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. [93], In 1966, Yeager was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame. His wife,. Yeager never sought the spotlight and was always a bit gruff. Yeager's wife, Victoria, paid tribute on Twitter. He was 97. [97], Yeager was an honorary board member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope. [67][72] The Beechcraft was later destroyed during an air raid by the Indian Air Force at a PAF airbase. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces out of high school in September 1941, becoming an airplane mechanic. 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. West Virginia Chuck Yeager is dead at the age of 97. . Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager died, Dec. 7, 2020. But there were no news broadcasts that day, no newspaper headlines. Dec 9, 2020. 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. [70] During the war, he flew around the western front in a helicopter documenting wreckages of Indian warplanes of Soviet origin which included Sukhoi Su-7s and MiG-21s; they were transported to the United States after the war for analysis. The book and movie centered on the daring test pilots of the space program's early days. [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. He reportedly could see enemy fighters from 50 miles away and ended up fighting in several wars. [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). Yeager strikes a pose with Sam Shepard, who played him in the movie version of The Right Stuff. [52] For this feat, Yeager was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) in 1954. The games include Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0, and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. "Harmon Prizes go for 2 Air "Firsts"; Vertical-Flight Test Pilot and Airship Endurance Captain Are 1955 Winners, "The Wife Stuff: Feuds, Trials & Lawsuits, Bills, Bills, Bills, Chuck Yeager", "Republicans Hire Chuck Yeager For Political Ads", "Chuck Yeager is in love. Yeager married 45-year-old Victoria Scott DAngelo in 2003. She is the namesake of his sound-barrier breaking Bell X-1 aircraft, "Glamorous Glennis". ", Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies, "The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club", "Famous pilot Yeager re-enacting right stuff 65 years later", "Chuck Yeager, Pioneer of Supersonic Flight, Dies at Age 97", "Chuck Yeager is honored by Tuskegee Airman", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", "The Daily Diary of President Gerald R. Ford: December 8, 1976", "Ground-Level Monuments Honor Heroes of the Air", "Harry S. Truman The President's Day, November 2, 1950". Working with the Piper company he broke several flying records for light aircraft. Warner Bros./ Courtesy: Everett Collection. Celebrating the 100th birthday of General Chuck Yeager. You do it because its duty. He was showered with awards, and the airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after him. From his family's words . Yeager grew up in the mountains of West Virginia, an average student who never attended college. He married Glennis Dickhouse of Oroville, California, on Feb. 26, 1945. 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. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985. [89] In December 1975, the U.S. Congress awarded Yeager a silver medal "equivalent to a noncombat Medal of Honor for contributing immeasurably to aerospace science by risking his life in piloting the X-1 research airplane faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947". After they were bested, Ridley and Yeager decided to beat rival Crossfield's speed record in a series of test flights that they dubbed "Operation NACA Weep". An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever. You concentrate on results. 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 got himself shot down and he escaped," van der Linden says. He was 97. An. 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. Supersonic pioneer Chuck Yeager passes away at 97 | News | Flight Global Aviation pioneer Charles 'Chuck' Yeager passed away on 7 December at the age of 97. AP Any airplane I name after you always brings me home. He flew P-51 Mustang fighters in the European theater during World War II, and in March 1944, on his eighth mission, he was shot down over France by a German fighter plane and parachuted into woods with leg and head wounds. He grew up in nearby Hamlin, a town of about 400, where his father drilled for natural gas in the coal fields. With the U.S. Air Force's 75th Birthday approaching next year, we look back at the legacy of the first person to break the sound barrier at a time when the Air Force was not even a month old. 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. It was not until 10 June 1948 that the US finally announced its success, but Yeager was already soaring towards myth. General Yeager broke the sound barrier again in an F-15D on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight in 1997. [123][124], Yeager lived in Grass Valley, Northern California and died in the afternoon of December 7, 2020 (National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day), at age 97, in a Los Angeles hospital.[125][126]. "Yeager epitomized the pioneering spirit that has and always will propel the Test community Toward the UnexploredAd Inexplorata! 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. US Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager, stands beside the plane in which he broke the sound barrier, the Bell X-1, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis in honor of his wife, in California, circa March 1949. Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account. 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. He was 97. [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 passed away on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, with not enough fanfare. In 1947 Yeager was the first person to break the sound. 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 . The history-making pilot helped "set our nations dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. His father was an oil and gas driller and a farmer. This. Downed pilots were not generally put back into combat, but his pleas to see action again were granted. [54], Now a full colonel in 1962,[55] after completion of a year's studies and final thesis on STOL aircraft [56] at the Air War College, Yeager became 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. [73][74] Edward C. Ingraham, a U.S. diplomat who had served as political counselor to Ambassador Farland in Islamabad, recalled this incident in the Washington Monthly of October 1985: "After Yeager's Beechcraft was destroyed during an Indian air raid, he raged to his cowering colleagues that the Indian pilot had been specifically instructed by Indira Gandhi to blast his plane. That's what you're taught to do.". On 14 October 1947, Yeager's plane - nicknamed Glamorous Glennis, in honour of his first wife - was dropped from the bomb bay of a B-29 aircraft above the Mojave Desert in the south-western US. The children contended that D'Angelo, at least 35 years Yeager's junior, had married him for his fortune. A tweet posted on the former U.S. Air Force pilot's official Twitter account and attributed to his wife, Victoria Yeager, confirmed the World War II ace died just before 9 p.m. Monday. [96], Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named in his honor. After World War II, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. In recognition of his achievements and the outstanding performance ratings of those units, he was promoted to brigadier general in 1969 and inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973, retiring on March 1, 1975. In a tweet, Victoria Yeager wrote: "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my. He was 97. There he flew 127 missions. Video'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. He said the ride was nice, just like riding fast in a car.. 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!" The family later moved to Hamlin, the county seat. Bob van der Linden of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington says Yeager stood out. Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine ranked him the fifth greatest pilot of all time in 2003. 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. BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Legendary pilot and West Virginia native Chuck Yeager died Monday night, his wife said on social media. One day I climbed up on my roof with my 8 mm camera when he flew overhead. His career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army, assigned to the Army Air Forces in 1941. Chuck Yeager, standing next to the "Glamorous Glennis," the Bell X-1 experimental plane with which he first broke the sound barrier. After his famous flight in the X-1, he continued testing newer, faster and more dangerous aircraft. Just over a year ago, December 7, 2020, an aviation icon, U.S. Air Force Brig. 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). Yeager's success was later immortalised in the Tom Wolfe book The Right Stuff, and a subsequent film of the same name. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. [21] "I raised so much hell that General Eisenhower finally let me go back to my squadron" Yeager said. XBB.1.5 Now Predominant COVID-19 Variant In Oregon. Published: December 8, 2020. Chuck Yeager, a military test pilot who became the first pilot to break the sound barrier. Yeager went into the history books after his flight in the Bell X-1 experimental rocket plane in 1947. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. On October 19, 2006, the state of West Virginia also honored Yeager with a marker along Corridor G (part of U.S. Highway 119) in his home Lincoln County, and also renamed part of the highway the Yeager Highway. Then he faced another challenge during a dogfight over France. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, 'Trump or bust' - grassroots Republicans are still loyal. He married Glennis Dickhouse of Oroville, California, on Feb. 26, 1945. 'It was', he later wrote, 'the Indian way of giving Uncle Sam the finger'". 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. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called his death "a tremendous. He was 97. I thought he was going to take me off the roof. Born on February 13th, 1923, General Chuck Yeager with the Bell X-1 team, made world history breaking the sound barrier on Oct. 14th, 1947. 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. [35] Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, Yeager broke two ribs when he fell from a horse. 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. [23] In the meantime, Yeager shot down his second enemy aircraft, a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber, over the English Channel. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Collier air trophy in December 1948 for his breaking the sound barrier. Gen. 2023 BBC. "[57][58] In his autobiography, Dwight details how Yeager's leadership led to discriminatory treatment throughout his training at Edwards Air Force Base. 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. I'm down to 25,000," he says calmly if a little breathlessly. But life continued much the same at Muroc. Gen. Sixty-five years later to the minute, on Oct. 14, 2012, Yeager commemorated the feat, flying in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle as it broke the sound barrier at more than 30,000 feet above Californias Mojave Desert. In 1974, Yeager received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. Summary: Retired Air Force Brig. 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. He served, in 1986, on President Ronald Reagans Rogers commission into the space shuttle Challenger tragedy. His Dutch-German family the surname was an anglicised version of Jger (hunter) had settled there in the 1800s. Yeager's wife, Victoria Yeager, announced his death on . [49], Yeager went on to break many other speed and altitude records. 03:07 He later regretted that his lack of a college education prevented him from becoming an astronaut. 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. Read about our approach to external linking. I was just a lucky kid who caught the right ride, he said. [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. And Chuck Yeager was always sort of the cowboy of the airplane world. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. 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. "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. Yeagers death is a tremendous loss to our nation, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. Yeager was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. He commanded a fighter wing during the Vietnam War while holding the rank of colonel and flew 127 missions, mainly piloting Martin B-57 light bombers in attacking enemy troops and their supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.