Rest in Peace Charles Elwood 'Chuck' Yeager

[Airbubba]

Just got word that Chuck Yeager passed away on Pearl Harbor Day 2020.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1264x320/yeager_2_385a45b14b343e0a47c0b7311544caaa85f38a38.jpg


Chuck Yeager, famed pilot and legendary West Virginian, has died

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1574x862/yeager_7681eb0c8312c02a901795c0a6a79c8119697384.jpgBy Brad McElhinny (https://wvmetronews.com/author/bmcelhinny/)
December 7, 2020 - 10:42 pmChuck Yeager, World War II ace, daring test pilot and legendary West Virginian, has died.

His wife, Victoria, announced Yeager’s death on Twitter and highlighted his “legacy of strength, adventure and patriotism.” She did not state a cause of death. Yeager was 97.

[gums]

Salute!

Thnx, Bubba.

Another nickel on the grass for me this last two weeks, as I lost two of my room mates from the Blue Zoo.

I had the honor of meeting the guy two times, but could only "really" talk with him once.
As many legends showed up in 1979 at Hill to visit the first F-16 squadron, he followed. Unlike the others that looked around and shook some hands and departed, he came into our "theater" briefing room, sat on the edge of the stage and then talked with us for an hour or more. No holds barred, and he answered all our questions plus volunteered neat war stories.

Gums sends...

[West Coast]

Salute!

Thnx, Bubba.

Another nickel on the grass for me this last two weeks, as I lost two of my room mates from the Blue Zoo.

I had the honor of meeting the guy two times, but could only "really" talk with him once.
As many legends showed up in 1979 at Hill to visit the first F-16 squadron, he followed. Unlike the others that looked around and shook some hands and departed, he came into our "theater" briefing room, sat on the edge of the stage and then talked with us for an hour or more. No holds barred, and he answered all our questions plus volunteered neat war stories.

Gums sends...

Bob Hoover has met him at the pearly gates and they’re headed to the happy bottom riding club.

[Airbubba]

Obit from The Washington Post:
Chuck Yeager, test pilot who broke sound barrier, dies at 97
By Becky Krystal (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/becky-krystal/)

Dec. 7, 2020 at 11:23 p.m. EST

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. He was 97.

His wife, Victoria, announced the death from Gen. Yeager's official Twitter account. Additional details were not immediately available.
For his prowess in flight, Gen. Yeager became one of the great American folk heroes of the 1940s and 1950s. A self-described West Virginia hillbilly with a high school education, he said he came “from so far up the holler, they had to pipe daylight to me.” He became one of the greatest aviators of his generation, combining abundant confidence with an innate understanding of engineering mechanics — what an airplane could do under any form of stress.

He first stepped into a cockpit during World War II after joining the Army Air Forces directly out of high school. By the end of the war, he was a fighter ace credited with shooting down at least 12 German planes, including five in one day. Making the military his career, he emerged in the late 1940s as one of the newly created Air Force’s most revered test pilots.

His success in breaking the sound barrier launched America into the supersonic age. While airplanes had long had the power to achieve great speeds, changes in aerodynamic design allowed pilots such as Gen. Yeager to overcome the problems of supersonic air flow as they approached the speed of sound.

He later trained men who would go on to join NASA’s Gemini and Apollo programs. Throughout his life, he broke numerous speed and altitude records, including becoming the first person to travel 21/2 times the speed of sound.Breaking the sound barrierHis greatest breakthrough occurred on Oct. 14, 1947, when a B-29 aircraft released then-Capt. Yeager and his squat, orange Bell X-1 experimental craft at nearly 20,000 feet over California’s Mojave Desert. The Bell X-1 was propelled by a four-chamber rocket engine and a volatile mix of ethyl alcohol, water and liquid oxygen, and Gen. Yeager named it “Glamorous Glennis” after his wife. Gen. Yeager, traveling at nearly 700 mph, broke the sound barrier.
Breaking the sound barrier was an important military milestone, said Bob van der Linden, chair of the aeronautics division at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, where the record-breaking plane is on display.“You win with speed,” van der Linden said. “With the advent of jets and rockets as well, every country was trying to push the limits of technology.”

Van der Linden said Gen. Yeager’s flight and his dedication to helping engineers build better planes helped pave the way for the country’s superiority in military aircraft design for years to come.

Because of the top-secret nature of the work, the Air Force did not publicly acknowledge Gen. Yeager’s most significant flight in the X-1. By December, enough information had been leaked to allow Aviation Week to publish a story. The government didn’t confirm the flight until close to six months later, and even then, Gen. Yeager had been coached to reveal few details of what happened when he reached Mach 1 (named after the German physicist Ernst Mach).
Pilots, including Gen. Yeager, reported trouble controlling aircraft as they approached the sound barrier. But, as he would say in his 1985 memoir, once the X-1 exceeded Mach 1, the ride “was as smooth as a baby’s bottom.”“Anybody can fly faster than sound as long as he wants to so far as the physical effects are concerned,” the Associated Press quoted Gen. Yeager as saying in 1949. “The fact is, it’s no different than sitting in your armchair at home.”

Such characteristic nonchalance — not to be confused with overabundant confidence — may have elevated rather than played down his achievement, considering the danger inherent in his line of work. Famed British test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. died in pursuit of Mach 1 in 1946, and others working for private companies had been killed in experimental craft as well. More perished in the years after Gen. Yeager’s flight.
Gen. Yeager refused to hold back when discussing some of his colleagues’ deaths, attributing accidents to pilot error, lack of experience or poor judgment. When Scott Crossfield (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2006/04/21/legendary-test-pilot-dies-span-classbankheadherndon-residents-plane-goes-down-in-stormspan/6750b7bf-a4b4-464b-b6cc-e1879ee34f13/?utm_term=.5d1d863e7090&itid=lk_inline_manual_25), the man who beat him to Mach 2, died in a plane crash in 2006 during a thunderstorm, Gen. Yeager told the Associated Press that Crossfield would do things, such as flying in bad weather, that “exceeded his capability.”Many near missesNot that Gen. Yeager’s career lacked its frightening moments. While he was able to pull out of at least one situation in 1953, when his plane spun out of control for 50,000 feet, he wasn’t so lucky in 1963 when, after reaching near space, he ejected from an NF-104 and suffered burns that required several surgeries.

Gen. Yeager and others attributed his success as a test pilot to his calm demeanor even in the face of death — “I’ll be back all right. In one piece, or a whole lot of pieces,” Time magazine article quoted him as saying in 1949.
Gen. Yeager appeared just as nonplussed after the publication of Tom Wolfe’s bestselling 1979 book “The Right Stuff,” which documented the heyday of test piloting and the early U.S. space program. A popular 1983 film version, starring Sam Shepard (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/sam-shepard-pulitzer-prize-winning-playwright-and-oscar-nominated-actor-dies-at-73/2017/07/31/3116f4ca-7603-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_31) as Yeager, similarly lionized the test pilot for a mass audience. Gen. Yeager had a cameo appearance as a bartender.While Wolfe described Gen. Yeager as “the most righteous of all the possessors of the right stuff,” Gen. Yeager claimed to be not that enamored with the designation — “jes’ don’t mean a rat’s fanny,” he told Newsweek in 1985. Nor was he impressed with the interpretation of history in the film adaptation.

Not long after, Gen. Yeager’s bestselling autobiography appeared, followed by endorsement deals that resulted in appearances in commercials for the aerospace and defense company Northrop and the car parts company AC Delco. He retired as an Air Force brigadier general in 1975, although in an honorary gesture, he was promoted to the rank of major general in 2005. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.From W. Va. to World War II aceGen. Yeager made no secret of his preference for hunting and fishing over the trappings of celebrity — an image not at odds with the way he described his upbringing in Hamlin, W.Va., where he was born Charles Elwood Yeager on Feb. 13, 1923.
He was one of A. Hal and Susie Yeager’s five children. His father was a gas-well driller, and the family also farmed. He enjoyed gardening, collecting bugs, hunting with a .22-caliber rifle and fishing in the Mud River. Although not a distinguished student, Chuck Yeager excelled in geometry and used his talents to become an excellent pool hustler. Like his father, he also showed great skill in mechanics and as a teen was able to take apart and reassemble a car engine.From his father, he inherited a stoicism toward violent death that became his hallmark as a pilot. When Gen. Yeager was not quite 5, his slightly older brother accidentally shot and killed their infant sister. Rather than erupting in hysterics, the elder Yeager calmly told the children, “I want to show you how to safely handle firearms.”

In September 1941, Chuck Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Forces and trained as a mechanic before heading to flight school and then to Europe as a pilot.
In March 1944, while on his eighth mission, he was shot down over German-occupied France. Members of the French underground helped him avoid German forces, eventually pairing him with another American who had been shot down.The two Americans set off on a grueling journey over the Pyrenees mountain range toward neutral Spain. After pushing their way through knee-deep snow and bitter cold, the exhausted men encountered a cabin in which to rest.

Gen. Yeager’s companion hung his socks outside to dry, a decision that tipped off the Germans to their presence. The Nazis fired into the cabin, forcing the pair to jump out the back window and into a creek. Gen. Yeager realized his companion had been shot in the knee and amputated part of his leg. He carried the injured man into Spain and eventually met up with British forces at Gibraltar. Gen. Yeager returned to England determined to fly again even though regulations prohibited anyone aided by members of the underground from going back on duty. The measure was designed to protect the operatives’ identities should any American be captured by Germans on subsequent missions.
Pursuing a return to combat duty, Gen. Yeager climbed his way up the Air Force hierarchy, “being passed around among colonels and generals” who “enjoyed meeting a very junior officer who refused to go home,” he said in his autobiography. With the help of a sympathetic two-star general, Gen. Yeager secured a meeting with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander.“I just wanted to meet two guys who think they’re getting a raw deal being sent home,” Eisenhower told Gen. Yeager and another pilot who had evaded capture in Holland, Gen. Yeager recalled in his book.

The War Department granted Eisenhower the power to return the pilots to the skies.

For his wartime service, Gen. Yeager received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart and the Air Medal.Test pilot fameUpon returning from the war, he married his fiancee, the former Glennis Dickhouse, who died in 1990. In 2003, Gen. Yeager married Victoria Scott D’Angelo, who was 36 years his junior. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

After World War II, Gen. Yeager served as a flight instructor in Texas before becoming a test pilot at Wright Field in Ohio. He impressed his superiors enough to be transferred to Muroc Field in California, later renamed Edwards Air Force Base, to work on the coveted X-1 project.

He received the assignment of attempting to reach Mach 1 after a civilian pilot who had been testing the craft demanded a $150,000 bonus, not to mention that the head of the test flight division, Col. Albert Boyd, called him “the best instinctive pilot I ever saw.”

Gen. Yeager came close to missing his appointment with the record books. The Sunday before the flight, the pilot and his wife, Glennis, visited the local watering hole, Pancho's Fly Inn, and then decided to take a late-night horseback ride.

The adventure ended with Gen. Yeager breaking several ribs. To avoid being grounded by an Air Force doctor, he visited an off-base doctor, who told him to take it easy. Instead, he confided in a colleague who helped him fashion a broom handle that would allow Gen. Yeager to close the cockpit of the X-1 with the least amount of pain.

And, so, armed with that implement and little protection other than a leather football helmet, Gen. Yeager accomplished the mission he was given.

“My feelings were immaterial; you have none,” he told Aerospace America in January 2003. “It was your duty, like combat. Some people are going to get killed. You just hope it’s not you.”

Through 1953, Gen. Yeager continued testing planes at Edwards until leaving for Okinawa, Japan, where he flew a Soviet-made MiG captured by Americans. His task was to evaluate the Soviets’ aviation capabilities. Upon returning to the United States in 1957, he became an air squadron commander and then commander of the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards in 1961. He also commanded a fighter wing and flew combat missions during the Vietnam War.

Gen. Yeager may have seemed a natural for the U.S. astronaut program, but he claimed he would not have qualified because he lacked a college degree. He added in his autobiography years later that he had no interest in being an astronaut, as they were “little more than Spam in the can, throwing the right switches on instructions from the ground.”

Long after his record-breaking flight, Gen. Yeager remained a prominent public figure. The Air Force employed him in its recruitment efforts. Politicians sought his endorsement, although he shook off any notion of running for office. He also was appointed by President Reagan to the panel that investigated the 1986 explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.

In 2002, Gen. Yeager climbed into an F-15 Eagle at Edwards and broke the sound barrier, with the characteristic sonic boom, for the last time.

“I was probably the last guy who will get to do the kind of flying I did,” he said at the time. “I came into the military as an 18-year-old kid before World War II, never having been in an airplane, never having even seen one on the ground. It turned into quite an opportunity.”

[tdracer]

Just another thing to hate about the year 2020 :(
One of my hero's - even more so after I watched "The Right Stuff" (I still remember the lady I went to see the movie with - during the flight where he broke the sound barrier she turned to me and whispered "I'm sure glad I know how this turned out".)
West Coast - :ok:
RIP Chuck.

[Point Merge]

Yeagers final Mach Climb

The first filmed publicity of the X1 flight clearly accepts that this was not the 'first' time the sound barrier was broken, but the first in level flight. As with many things American 'not the first' often gets edited to the first. Like the brothers from Ohio, it was the first time they did it, having played catch up as others flew around for years. It's what they do.

Not detracting from the achievement, but, even on this day, let's acknowledged the achievements of those who went before.

37 flights of the X1 before Yeager

12 flights for Yeager before the M 1.06 flight

'The Right Stuff' is not a documentary and it's 'advisor' and 'actor' didn't seem to worry about that.

Went a very long way once, to watch as he strapped into the back of a jet and hear the double pop and rumble as the pilot dropped the 'booms' right on the crowd line at Edwards.

[Lookleft]

Certainly an extraordinary long life for someone who flew combat missions and was a test pilot in the early days of jets.

[cattletruck]

His autobiography makes for interesting reading, perhaps not a work of Shakespeare but it does highlight some of the difficult challenges he was faced with and had to overcome. An incredible self-made person who lived an incredible life. RIP.

[Less Hair]

From zero to general. Quite a career not avoiding those wartime jobs.

[charliegolf]

Bob Hoover has met him at the pearly gates and they’re headed to the happy bottom riding club.

Yep, both upside down and not spilling a drop! RIP.

I believe he said something like, "You can back up, but you don't give up." You can live ok by that, I reckon.

CG

[olster]

Amazing man.

[chopper2004]

RIP and Blue Skies sir, he flew the F-20 Tigershark as part of Northrop marketing campaign and like his saying 8n the video “the object today is to strap your Fanny to a 9G fighter” lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BDgQwlfHII

[fitliker]

Watched him take off in his P51 Glamorous Glennis and do some rolls . I went out to the windsock to listen to the music of a Merlin engine at take off power . Never got the chance to thank him for his service . I was told I would be fired if I climbed into the plane when it was in the paint shop of Macon Air 1990 . Nobody guarding it during lunch break , so anyone of the flight instructors might have climbed into that tiny fighting space . I would never admit to climbing in like a ten year old boy to that tiny cramped space . The P51 was having the D-day stripes repainted for the new owner from Atlanta. The Respect and Love the entire company had for that Man was Awesome . They would have followed him through the gates of Hell .
The new owner was asked if he felt comfortable letting someone else fly his very expensive plane . The owner replied if Chuck Yeager was not allowed to fly it , who could ? .
Pure Respect .
Thank you for your service

[TheFrenchConnection]

RIP Chuck Yeager = Legend
Read his autobiography , written a few years ago ...brilliant
Watch ' The Right Stuff ' again , fabulous
Thanks CY for the incredible memories ..

[Fonsini]

I went out of my way to meet him in Phoenix with my wife in tow, and sadly the old adage of “never meet your heroes” held very true on that occasion. No hard feelings here, I still have a portrait of his aircraft “Glamorous Glennis” hanging in my study. Rest In Peace Chuck, you did your bit and then some.

[cavuman1]

I attended a talk given by General Yeager at the National Air and Space Museum in the early 1990's. The presentation lasted a little longer than an hour and when it ended the General was given a protracted and well-deserved standing ovation.

The one and only Chuck Yeager stuck around to converse with anyone who cared to remain; many, including me, had brought a copy of his autobiography to receive its author's signature. When my turn arrived, I gave the General a firm handshake which he returned as he stared at me through squinting turquoise eyes. I could see vague hints of the surgeries he'd undergone when half of his face was burned severely by the melted metal lava of the rocket of his ejection seat as he plummeted nearly ten miles; I could see the deep wrinkles carved into that face, written there as he sighted his single-shot .22 rifle on a rabbit in the "holler" depending on "piped-in" sunlight, or when he had Migs, or Messerschmitts, or sound barriers to conquer with unequaled precision.

Then my turn was done and the next lucky attendee got to create his own indelible memory. I exited the museum through the main lobby. At floor level, I walked past the Apollo Command Module, Columbia. Above me hung The Spirit of St. Louis, The Wright Flyer, an X-15, and the Bell X-1, a .45 bullet fuselage with stub-wings named Glamorous Glennis. These craft were not replicas - they were the genuine article.

I spent a moment looking up, trying to grasp the depth of courage it took to pilot these amazing craft, and to treasure the remembrance of the strong handshake and broad smile given to me by one of them: a true hero, whose commitment to success came from the very heavenly skies toward which he so frequently turned his gaze.

- Ed
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x900/bell_x_1_glamorous_glennis_adc408ff31b34bb635c0505ef4151b59c 4cd8996.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/707x900/chuckyeager_e08ec98641cc2ba04d27e937bf1734fc53279ccf.jpg

[MightyGem]

I had the privilege of being in the same room(well, marquee really) at the Wright Brothers 100th anniversary at Kittyhawk in Dec 2003, along with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Three legends at once.

Two now gone. RIP Neil and Chuck.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1590x1371/kh034a_c9708b297a9803c49c3315885a5f84b0957b6213.jpg

[Ken Scott]

An interesting article that debunks the idea that North American test pilot George Welch pipped Yeager to Mach 1 although probably not by much:

https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/mach-1-whodunit-180958702/

An amazing era of aviation which General Yeager was fortunate to survive. I loved ‘The Right Stuff’ and his autobiography, a sad day.

[MightyGem]

For those wondering, the other guy in the photo is Joseph Kittinger. Kittinger held the world record for the highest parachute jump, made in August 1960, when he jumped from a balloon at an altitude of 102,800 ft, free-falling to 17,500 ft in a world record time of 4 minutes 36 seconds! The altitude record stood for 52 years, when Felix Baumgartner jumped from 127, 852 ft in 2012.

[treadigraph]

Joseph Kittinger

I believe he was still flying joyriders in something interesting from Lakeland until fairly recently.

[Lyneham Lad]

In The Guardian.
Chuck Yeager, supersonic flight pioneer – a life in pictures (https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2020/dec/08/chuck-yeager-supersonic-flight-pioneer-a-life-in-pictures?CMP=share_btn_link)

[DirtyProp]

Very sad news, his biography was truly inspirational.
He'll be sorely missed.

[pchapman]

Yeager was indeed a great fighter & test pilot who achieved high rank, although like everyone he had his failings too. He is so universally lauded so a little critique is OK too. He could be quite self promotional, and others noted one situation where others believe he screwed up, lost a plane, and covered up the error even in his memoirs:

Specifically, the rocket assisted F-104 crash that was depicted so famously in The Right Stuff . Yeager blamed it on equipment failure, but others blamed it on Yeager, especially his cowboy attitude and disdain for listening carefully to instructions or thinking through the aerodynamics details.

For example, a couple other test pilots' critiques of the NF-104 episode are found in: NF-104 Space Pilot Trainer (http://mfwright.com/nf104.html)

NF-104 test pilot Bob Smith got a partial autobiography & history of the NF-104 online before he passed away in 2010. One part of that summarizes Chuck's famous accident:
Do I think Chuck Yeager fabricated an excuse for his event over the top and the resultant failure in his accident? Undoubtedly, he did. It is possible it was due to confusion by events to which he could not relate, or to merely salvage his image of invincibility. Here was a pilot, one of the best stick and rudder flyers and practiced test pilots, one of the most intuitive in responding to the unknown events of flying for all time who found himself in an environment, in his mind, which is something that he has contended with and conquered for so many years. But he had not accepted from all our briefings that it was not that same environment, and skills to conquer it were different. The AST [AeroSpace Trainer, NF-104] responded in a ways different than any airplane because of a different environment. But little did I expect that it would be his failure to control climb angle in the environment that he understood so well that would be his downfall. Chuck will never comprehend what happened so cannot analyze it except on his terms

But there is that other possibility, stated in the words of one of his long time associates and competitors in flight testing, the famous and first X-15 test pilot A. Scott Crossfield, who I expect read Chuck’s book and, in Scott’s recent speech at the Hiller Museum in Santa Clara, CA, he referred to Chuck Yeager as, “That well known novelist.”

That's all from one of the chapters of Bob's story of the NF-104, at NF104 | Yeager's View in Review (http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_16.html)

Chuck had great skill & energy & an extraordinary life, but not every tale about him has to be hagiography!

[Airbubba]

I went out of my way to meet him in Phoenix with my wife in tow, and sadly the old adage of “never meet your heroes” held very true on that occasion.

I've heard from several folks over the years that General Yeager never met Will Rogers. A friend who commanded a B-2 test and eval squadron felt that Yeager tried to shake down Northrup for consulting fees on many projects, including the B-2, that he knew little about.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1942x1121/yeager_3_2__4d54837dc45eb9ad764a5d26d02d0eba34992f03.jpg

[olster]

Great writing Cavuman.

[The Oberon]

Like him or loathe him, he was a national hero. After a couple of decades thinking about it, I finally went to see The Indianapolis 500 in 1993. Prior to the race, Yeager led a flypast of 5 x P51s. To a man, 470,000 spectators rose to their feet and cheered. He maybe even heard it.

[Less Hair]

He was certainly some gifted stick an rudder guy and old time daredevil and actual warfighter and ace. Sort of a working class hero. No surprise that the new generation of university degree types, astronaut folks and intellectuals didn't like him and vice versa.
In the future this gap might open another time: Now its people that actually do fly versus pure software designers in clean rooms.

[Pali]

Made my eyes wet...


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/843x585/chucky_c491df84681047d9de47600b91584eab79116943.jpg

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Joe Kittinger's big step.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/469x609/fallschrimsprung_joseph_kittinger_record_free_imag_9916_f1c1 dfd7d7d8e9cdee9b92fd870943fc03c8318e.jpg

He got to 614 mph...without an aircraft.

Baumgartner broke the sound barrier during his jump, the first human to do so outside a vehicle. Wonder how many people will remember his name in 70 years?

[GlobalNav]

He was born the same year as my father and entered service as an aircraft mechanic in the Army Air Corps like my father. Both represented what I wanted to be part of one day.

Went to Oshkosh Airventure 2000 with my son and witnessed Yeager and Bud Anderson flying P-51’s in formation. Stood about 50 feet away as they parked and stepped down from the planes. Explained to my son how lucky we were to be there.

We were lucky to have such men.

[rotorheadinfl]

I had the pleasure to meet Gen. Yeager in 1998, at the 50th anniversary celebration of ERA Aviation in Anchorage, AK. They were customer of my company; and I was there as our representative to present a plaque of recognition for the event. He was a good fishing / hunting buddy of one of the company's senior officers; and had been invited as well. It was Mid-Summer's eve; and an absolutely glorious day.

Gen. Yeager and I were on stage together; and we had a very nice chat for few minutes before the ceremony. He could not have been more congenial. I mean, what do a helicopter pilot and the man who broke the sound barrier talk about?! Well, the speeds are different; but it's still flying. It was a memorable experience for me, to say the least.

I later had the pleasure to meet Bob Hoover at a trade show as well; and that just about made my career complete. What a great life being a pilot turned out to be!

[teeteringhead]

There is unsubstantiated rumor that a Me-262 went supersonic towards the end of WW II. There's quite a bit on early - probably inadvertent and unrecorded - supersonic excursions in various types in Winkle Brown's "Wings on my Sleeve" - which you should read anyway!

Winkle was a great proponent of the Miles M52 (an early political cancellation?) which would have been a likely contender to beat Chuck to it - but it didn't!!

He (Winkle) wrote a book on the M52, which I'm about to start reading - when I finish re-reading "Wings"!

[meleagertoo]

Listen to his RAeS lecture on the subject - fascinating stuff. Available from their fabulous lecture archive.

[Misformonkey]

I went out of my way to meet him in Phoenix with my wife in tow, and sadly the old adage of “never meet your heroes” held very true on that occasion. No hard feelings here, I still have a portrait of his aircraft “Glamorous Glennis” hanging in my study. Rest In Peace Chuck, you did your bit and then some.

I've heard that before and followed him on Twitter for a time but his attitude to Brit's as he put it turned me off. Perhaps his qualities were a good plane jock who had opportunities to set records but not someone i'd like to have a pub chat with. Some interesting links on him shared in this thread....

[megan]

He (Winkle) wrote a book on the M52, which I'm about to start readingGood book if you love fiction, bit like the quote that Yeager was a good novelist, must be something about certain test pilots.

[MAINJAFAD]

Good book if you love fiction, bit like the quote that Yeager was a good novelist, must be something about certain test pilots.

Yep, Brown and Bancroft were very selective about what documentation they used as sources for that book. A better history is here.

https://www.aerosociety.com/news/audio-classic-lecture-series-the-miles-m52-project-by-mike-hirst/

The Q and A session raises some very valid points about the problems that the M.52 would have had in beating the X-1 to breaking the Sound Barrier had it not been cancelled. The air intake design issue was not a minor problem at all and was not an issue that either the X-1 or the model M.52 later launched from a Mosquito had to deal with being both rocket powered.

[Airbubba]

Another remembrance of General Yeager in today's Sunday Times.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1180x2000/img_4325_1b97a2070b8e654ffe3cb2fee167c8a97cf36adc.png

The Times column is behind a paywall, it is gisted in this Express article:

Jeremy Clarkson admits feeling conflicted after death of his ‘hero’ ‘Should have been sad'
JEREMY CLARKSON - who is best known for hosting Top Gear and The Grand Tour - has opened up following the death of his "hero" Chuck Yeager, as the star recalled an awkward meeting he had with the record-setting test pilot.By KATHRYN INGATE (https://www.express.co.uk/search?s=Kathryn%20Ingate&b=1)

PUBLISHED: 14:06, Sun, Dec 13, 2020 | UPDATED: 14:23, Sun, Dec 13, 2020

Jeremy divulged: “They say you should never meet your heroes, and they’re right, because I once met mine. His name was Chuck Yeager.

“He died last week and I should have been sad because I’d been brought up on stories of how this natural-born, stick-and-rudder, speak-as-I-find redneck won the war single-handedly, with no help at all from the RAF or Polish airmen.

“He was shot down over France and evaded the Nazis to make his escape, then, two years after the war ended, he became the first man to break the sound barrier.”

However, The Grand Tour presenter then shared his disappointment over his first meeting with Chuck.

He admitted: “I had wanted to talk to Yeager about this for a television show I was making, and then one day, after months of me trying, he called my production office from his home in Sacramento, California, saying he would do the interview the next day.

“As I was in Chipping Norton, this presented something of a challenge, but as it was Chuck Yeager, I did a lot of tyre-squealing, and running at airports, and the next day the film crew and I pulled into his driveway at 3.15pm.”

Unfortunately for Jeremy, his interview with the United States Air Force officer got off to a bad start due to the last minute nature of the appointment making him late.

The star recalled: “He was standing there, looking at his watch and, as I climbed out of the car, he said: ‘You’re 15 minutes late.’

“Naturally, I assumed he was joking, so I replied: ‘That’s nothing. You were three years late for the Second World War.’ He turned on his heel, went inside and slammed the door.

“After we negotiated for some time with his equally angry wife, he eventually agreed to do the interview. But only if we sat next to his extremely noisy fridge.”

Jeremy then said Chuck got irritated by his line of questioning during their chat.

He added: “We began to talk about how the Americans had, let’s say, ‘appropriated’ a British wing design to get the Bell X-1 through the sound barrier.

“This wing had been successfully tested during the war and, as a result, the Berkshire-based company Miles Aircraft was well on its way to making a 1,000mph jet plane.

“But then the British government suddenly shut down the operation in 1946, having already given the project’s research to the Americans.

“Yeager denied all this, claiming the British were useless at everything and that ‘the only people I hated more than the Germans in the war were the English’.”

Jeremy said in his latest column for The Sunday Times that the interview escalated to the point where Chuck’s face was “purple with rage”.


Jeremy Clarkson: Top Gear star conflicted after death of his ‘hero’ ‘Should have been sad' | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV | Express.co.uk (https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1371988/Jeremy-Clarkson-top-gear-Chuck-Yeager-death-the-right-stuff-conflicted-hero-news-latest)

[megan]

the Americans had, let’s say, ‘appropriated’ a British wing design to get the Bell X-1 through the sound barrierJust shows Clarkson didn't have a clue either.having already given the project’s research to the AmericansA bit of a stretch of the facts. American C. B. Millikan was given a briefing on the M.52 and I have a copy of his report, it contains only a general over sight of the 52 and little in depth information, he thought the project interesting but not worthy of further exploration.

[BEagle]

Airbubba , Jeremy's article continued In spite of his negative encounter with Chuck leaving him feeling conflicted over his death, Jeremy revealed he has decided to remember him in a more positive light.

He concluded: “Which is why I shall choose to remember Yeager as he was portrayed on screen by the generous and brave and talented Sam Shepard.

“The right man who played a wrong ’un in what remains one of the greatest films made: The Right Stuff.”

[Airbubba]

And, ironically, Chuck Yeager outlived actor Sam Shepard who passed away in 2017 on his horse farm in the Bluegrass Country of Kentucky.

I agree that The Right Stuff is a great movie even though it probably should have the same opening disclaimer as The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean: 'Maybe This Isn't The Way It Was - It's The Way It Should Have Been!'

[Lookleft]

A meeting between Yeager and Bader would have been interesting!

[megan]

MAINJAFAD, listened to the link you provided and a new piece of information put up by BrownBrown - On the question of the all moving tailplane, certainly the United States knew about it, but I've no evidence of them having actually flown a full scale flying tailplane, but I flew such a tailplane on a Spitfire in October/November 1944NACA modified the XP-42 with an all flying tailplane March 1943 and made its first flight the same month in the hands of Langley test pilot John P. "Jack" Reeder. NASA photo.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/749x600/p_42_f3b02ce19638dd73606bd5214345628ab76a7e8b.jpg

[rotorfan]

I’m fortunate to live about a day’s drive from Oshkosh, so for many years now, my only holiday would be spent there (yes, pathetic, I know). As a participant in the Young Eagles program, I would attend a luncheon workshop, and Gen. Yeager would drop by, being the honorary chairman for a few years. He was quite willing to just hang out with us mere mortals. I was able to get his signature on my Young Eagles cap.

It was not uncommon there to have a forum with Gen. Yeager and Col. Hoover both on stage, doing their “there I was...” stories. We could have listened for hours longer than the forums lasted. Though the details are getting foggy, I thought I recalled a story that Hoover was slated to fly the X-1 flight, but did something to get himself in trouble. Yeager got the honor instead, and the rest is history. (Someone with better details please correct me.) I sensed they were keen friends, and also keen rivals. I got to meet Hoover when he flew his Shrike in the local airshow, and found myself several feet behind him in a concession line. As I was an air show volunteer, I approached him to make sure he was aware of the performers’ lounge. He said he was, but was also getting something for friends there. I told him his money was no good here, and bought his meal. He looked gobsmacked and genuinely thanked me, as if that had never happened before. Then he signed that same Young Eagles hat. He was quite a gentleman. I have great respect for them both, and for their courage to push the edge, but I do regard Hoover as the better pilot.

[megan]

Hoover was slated to fly the X-1 flight, but did something to get himself in trouble. Yeager got the honor insteadYeager was always the nominated pilot, Hoover was the backup. Perhaps if the fact that Yeager had two broken ribs and in considerable pain had become known he may have been grounded and the flight would then have been Hoovers. Hoover was on the program because Yeager had requested so, along with Jack Ridley, who rather than being given a piloting role was assigned as flight test engineer. Hoover never got to fly the aircraft but Ridley did a number of times. One month after the supersonic flight where Hoover flew chase he had an accident in an F-84 where a fire burnt through the control runs, the ejection seat failed so he jumped where he was slammed into the tail, broke a leg and a few other bones, following a protracted convalescence his spot in the X-1 program had already been filled.

[Airbubba]

Though the details are getting foggy, I thought I recalled a story that Hoover was slated to fly the X-1 flight, but did something to get himself in trouble. Yeager got the honor instead, and the rest is history.

Hoover tells the tale in Forever Flying (1996) that he got caught flat-hatting trying to impress a girl and for his punishment was moved from the X-1 to the chase plane for the Mach 1 attempt.

[megan]

he got caught flat-hatting trying to impress a girl and for his punishment was moved from the X-1 to the chase plane for the Mach 1 attemptAirbubba, could you please scan the relevant part of the book and email? Yeager was always the number one man, with Bob the backup, so interested in the proposition that Bob was to make the supersonic run, having no previous experience in the aircraft.

[Airbubba]

Airbubba, could you please scan the relevant part of the book and email? Yeager was always the number one man, with Bob the backup, so interested in the proposition that Bob was to make the supersonic run, having no previous experience in the aircraft.

Here's the Bob Hoover story about how he was moved from primary pilot to chase pilot in the X-1 test project in this fair use excerpt from Forever Flying (1996):

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1080x1789/scan0002_2_large__c7b2df3825146f734daa7a4469715a5e9a14bb29.j pg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1080x1451/scan0003_2_large__a177101c80f4cfa3e40b4bbd27112b28bed3733e.j pg

[megan]

Many thanks for that, interesting that no where does history, or the official accounts, comment on that story. More believable than the self promotional story Yeager tells. In away it makes sense, since Hoover had been assigned as project test pilot of the Me 163, so was knowledgeable about rocket operations, although the project was cancelled following glide flights