Chuck Yeager (1923–2020,) fully Charles Elwood Yeager, was an American test pilot. In 1947, he was the first to break the sound barrier when he piloted the Bell X-1 rocket research aircraft at high altitude to a level-flight speed of 670 mph.
Born in Myra, West Virginia, Yeager enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1941. He graduated as a fighter pilot in 1943, and during combat missions, he gained twelve victories.
On 14-Oct-1947, Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket research aircraft to a level speed of more than 670mph, thus breaking the sound barrier, and in the Bell X-1A, he flew at more than twice the speed of sound (1953.) He was commander of the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School (1956–66) and commanded the 405th Fighter Wing in the Vietnam War, retiring a brigadier-general in 1976.
Subsequently, Yeager lectured, worked as an aviation consultant, and continued to fly supersonic and other aircraft. He worked with the Piper Company, and he broke several records for light aircraft. He also served on President Ronald Reagan’s Rogers Commission that investigated the space shuttle Challenger tragedy in 1986.
Yeager’s last supersonic flight in 2012 commemorated the 65th anniversary of his breaking of the sound barrier.
The airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after Yeager. His autobiography, Yeager, was published in 1985.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Chuck Yeager
You don’t concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.
—Chuck Yeager
Topics: Performance
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