‘Right stuff’ pilot broke sound barrier
GRASS VALLEY, CALIF. — Retired Air ForceBrig. 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, has died. Hewas 97.
Yeager diedMonday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account.
“It isw/ profoundsorrow, Imust tell you thatmy life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before9pmET. Anincredible lifewell lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.”
Yeager’s death is “a tremendous loss to our nation,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.
“Gen. Yeager’s pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America’s abilities in the sky and set our nation’sdreamssoaringinto the jet age and the space age. He said, ‘Youdon’tconcentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done,’ ” Bridenstine said.
“Inan ageofmedia-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.
He was “the most righteous of all those with the right stuff,” saidMaj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards.
Yeager, froma small town in the hills ofWestVirginia, flewformorethan60years, including piloting an F-15 to near 1,000 mph (1,609 kph) at Edwards in October 2002 at age 79.
“Living to a ripe old age is not an end in itself. The trick is to enjoy the years remaining,” he said in“Yeager: An Autobiography.”
“I haven’t yet done everything, but by the time I’m finished, I won’t have missed much,” he wrote. “If I auger in (crash) tomorrow, itwon’tbewith a frown onmy face. I’ve had a ball.”
On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager, then a 24-year-old captain, pushed an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph (1,062 kph) tobreakthesoundbarrier, at the time a daunting aviation milestone.
“Sure, I was apprehensive,” he said in 1968. “When you’re fooling aroundwith something you don’t know much about, there has to be apprehension. But you don’t let that affect your job.”
The modest Yeager said in 1947 he could have gone even faster if the plane had carried more fuel. He said the ride “was nice, just like riding fast in a car.”
Yeager nicknamed the rocket plane, and all his other aircraft, “Glamorous Glennis” for his first wife, who died in 1990.