Chuck Yeager

Chuck Yeager
February 13 1923(1923-02-13) – December 7 2020 (aged 97)
Brigadier General Chuck Yeager
Place of birth	Myra, West Virginia
Place of death	Los Angeles, California
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army United States Air Force
Years of service	1941–1947 (Army) 1947–1975 (Air Force)
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	World War II Korean War Vietnam War
Awards	Air Force Distinguished Service Medal Army Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star (2) Legion of Merit (2) Distinguished Flying Cross (3) Bronze Star Medal Purple Heart
Spouse	Glennis Dickhouse (m. 1945; died 1990)​ Victoria Scott D'Angelo (m. 2003)
Children	4
Relations	Steve Yeager (cousin)
Other work	Flight instructor and test pilot

Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (/ˈjeɪɡər/ YAY-gər, February 13, 1923 - December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot. In 1947 he became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Yeager later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany, as well as in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, the Korean War zone, and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. Yeager's active-duty flying career spanned more than 30 years.

In recognition of his achievements he was awarded the Harmon Trophy (1953), and the Collier Trophy and Mackay Trophy (1947), for breaking the sound barrier for the first time, and was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame (1966), the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1973), and the International Space Hall of Fame (1981). The U.S. Congress awarded Yeager a silver medal equivalent to a noncombat Medal of Honor (1975). President Ronald Reagan honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1985). Yeager is considered by many to be one of the greatest pilots of all time.

Life

Charles Elwood Yeager was born on February 13, 1923, to farming parents Susie Mae (née Sizemore; 1898–1987) and Albert Hal Yeager (1896–1963) in Myra, West Virginia. When he was five years old, his family moved to Hamlin, West Virginia. Yeager had two brothers, Roy and Hal Jr., and two sisters, Doris Ann (accidentally killed at age two by six-year-old Roy playing with a shotgun) and Pansy Lee.

He was a cousin of the baseball catcher Steve Yeager.

He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, received his best grades in geometry and typing, and graduated in June 1941. His first experience with the military was as a teen at the Citizens Military Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, during the summers of 1939 and 1940.

On February 26, 1945, Yeager married Glennis Dickhouse, and the couple had four children (Susan, Don, Mickey, and Sharon). He named both his World War II P-51 Mustang (Glamorous Glen) and the X-1 (Glamorous Glennis) after her as a good-luck charm: "You're my good-luck charm, hon. Any airplane I name after you always brings me home." They moved to Grass Valley, California, after Yeager's retirement from the Air Force in 1975. The couple prospered because of Yeager's best-selling autobiography, speaking engagements, and commercial ventures. Glennis died in 1990, after two bouts with cancer. They had been married 45 years.

In 2000, Yeager met actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo on a hiking trail in Nevada County. The pair started dating shortly thereafter, and married in August 2003. Subsequent to the commencement of their relationship, a bitter dispute arose between Yeager, his children and D'Angelo. The children contended that D'Angelo, 35 years Yeager's junior, had married him for his fortune. Yeager and D'Angelo both denied the charge. 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 August 2008, the California Court of Appeal ruled for Yeager, finding that his daughter Susan had breached her duty as trustee.

Chuck Yeager died in the afternoon of December 7, 2020, at age 97, in a Los Angeles hospital.

Career

Yeager spent his working life as a pilot, a career that began in World War II as a private in the United States Army when he was assigned to the Army Air Forces. After the war, Yeager became a test pilot and flew many types of aircraft, including experimental rocket-powered aircraft for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

His active-duty flying career lasted for more than 30 years and three war zones, including the Korean War zone and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. In total, he flew more than 360 different types of aircraft.

World War II

Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) on September 12, 1941, and became an aircraft mechanic at George Air Force Base, Victorville, California. At enlistment, Yeager was not eligible for flight training because of his age and educational background, but the entry of the U.S. into World War II less than three months later prompted the USAAF to alter its recruiting standards. Yeager had unusually sharp vision (a visual acuity rated 20/10), which once enabled him to shoot a deer at 600 yards (550 m).

Yeager's first experience in an airplane was in 1942 when his Engineering Officer invited him on a test flight after maintenance of an AT-11:

It was in January 1942 and I had never been in any airplane in my life. I was a PFC [private first class], a crew chief on an AT-11 bomber trainer, and I had to change the engines. The engineering officer said, “You want to test the airplane?” I said, “I’ve never been in the air.” He said, “You’re really going to enjoy it.” Me being raised in West Virginia it was like me looking over a cliff. He flew some touch-and-go’s and I got really sick. After puking all over myself, I said, “Yeager, you made a big mistake.”

In September 1942, he entered enlisted pilot training. Upon graduation on March 10, 1943, he was promoted to the rank of flight officer (the World War II Army Air Force version of the Army's warrant officer). Assigned to the 357th Fighter Group at Tonopah, Nevada, he initially trained as a fighter pilot, flying Bell P-39 Airacobras (being grounded for seven days for clipping a farmer's tree during a training flight), and shipped overseas with the group on November 23, 1943.

Yeager as a young captain, c. 1944

Stationed in the United Kingdom at RAF Leiston, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat with the 363d Fighter Squadron. He named his aircraft Glamorous Glen after his girlfriend, Glennis Faye Dickhouse, who became his wife after the war. Yeager shot down over France in his first aircraft (P-51B-5-NA s/n 43-6763) on March 5, 1944. He escaped to Spain on March 30, 1944 with the help of the Maquis (French Resistance) and returned to England on May 15, 1944. During his stay with the Maquis, Yeager assisted the guerrillas in duties that did not involve direct combat, including helping to construct bombs, a skill that he had learned from his father. He was awarded the Bronze Star for helping a navigator, Omar M. "Pat" Patterson, Jr., to cross the Pyrenees.

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. He had joined another evader, fellow P-51 pilot 1st Lt Fred Glover, in speaking directly to the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on June 12, 1944. Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover. In the meantime, Yeager shot down his second enemy aircraft, a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber, over the English Channel.

P-51D-20NA, Glamorous Glen III, is the aircraft in which Yeager achieved most of his aerial victories.

Yeager demonstrated outstanding flying skills and combat leadership. 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. Two of these kills were scored without firing a single shot: when he flew into firing position against a Messerschmitt Bf 109, the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to starboard and colliding with his wingman. Yeager said both pilots bailed out. 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.

In his 1986 memoirs, Yeager recalled with disgust that "atrocities were committed by both sides," and said he went on a mission with orders from the Eighth Air Force to "strafe anything that moved." Yeager said, "I'm certainly not proud of that particular strafing mission against civilians. But it is there, on the record and in my memory."

Yeager was commissioned a second lieutenant while at Leiston, and was promoted to captain before the end of his tour. He flew his 61st and final mission on January 15, 1945, and returned to the United States in early February 1945.

Post-World War II

Test pilot

Yeager in front of the Bell X-1, which, as with all of the aircraft assigned to him, he named Glamorous Glennis (or some variation thereof), after his wife.

Yeager in the Bell X-1 cockpit

Yeager remained in the U.S. Air Force after the war. 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. He graduated from Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School (Class 46C), and served as a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base). The USAAF selected Yeager to fly the rocket-powered Bell XS-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight.

Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, Yeager broke two ribs when he fell from a horse. He was worried that the injury would remove him from the mission and reported that he went to a civilian doctor in nearby Rosamond, California, who taped his ribs. Besides his wife who was riding with him, Yeager told only his friend and fellow project pilot Jack Ridley about the accident. On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not seal the X-1's hatch by himself. Ridley rigged up a device, using the end of a broom handle as an extra lever, to allow Yeager to seal the hatch.

Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 45,000 feet (14,000 m) over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert in California. The success of the mission was not announced to the public until June 1948.

Yeager was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Collier Trophy in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight. The X-1 he flew that day was later put on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

Did you know?

Chuck Yeager was the first to officially break the sound barrier, flying the X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" (named after his wife) at Mach 1.05 on October 15, 1947

There are reports that other pilots had broken the sound barrier before Yeager's flight. However, their speed was not officially documented. For example, German pilot Lothar Sieber was estimated to have broken the speed of sound during his fatal test-flight of the rocket-powered Bachem Natter on March 1, 1945. In his 1990 book Me-163, former Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet pilot Mano Ziegler claims that his friend, test pilot Heini Dittmar, broke the sound barrier and that on July 6, 1944, he reached 1,130 km/h in dive, and that several people on the ground heard the sonic booms. There was also a disputed claim by German pilot Hans Guido Mutke that he was the first person to break the sound barrier, on April 9, 1945, in a Messerschmitt Me 262.

Yeager in 1950

Yeager went on to break many other speed and altitude records. 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. That year, he flew a chase aircraft for the civilian pilot Jackie Cochran as she became the first woman to fly faster than sound.

On November 20, 1953, the U.S. Navy program involving the D-558-II Skyrocket and its pilot, Scott Crossfield, became the first team to reach twice the speed of sound. 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". Not only did they beat Crossfield by setting a new record at Mach 2.44 on December 12, 1953, but they did it in time to spoil a celebration planned for the 50th anniversary of the first flight by the Wright brothers in which Crossfield was to be called "the fastest man alive."

The new record flight, however, did not entirely go to plan, since shortly after reaching Mach 2.44, Yeager lost control of the X-1A at about 80,000 feet (24,000 m) due to inertia coupling, a phenomenon largely unknown at the time. With the aircraft simultaneously rolling, pitching, and yawing out of control, Yeager dropped 51,000 feet (16,000 m) in less than a minute before regaining control at around 29,000 feet (8,800 m). He then managed to land without further incident. For this achievement, Yeager was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) in 1954.

Military command

Yeager, as Commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School with a model of the North American X-15, 1959

Yeager was foremost a fighter pilot and held several squadron and wing commands. From 1954 to 1957, he commanded the F-86H Sabre-equipped 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (50th Fighter-Bomber Wing) at Hahn AB, West Germany, and Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France; and from 1957 to 1960 the F-100D Super Sabre-equipped 1st Fighter Day Squadron at George Air Force Base, California, and Morón Air Base, Spain.

In 1962, now a full colonel and after completion of a year's studies and final thesis on STOL aircraft, Yeager became the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School (after redesignation from the USAF Flight Test Pilot School) which produced astronauts for NASA and the USAF. Yeager himself had only a high school education, so he was not eligible to become an astronaut like those he trained. In April 1962, Yeager flew for the only time with Neil Armstrong. Their job, flying a T-33, was to evaluate Smith Ranch Dry Lake in Nevada for use as an emergency landing site for the North American X-15. 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. As they attempted a touch-and-go, the wheels became stuck and they had to wait for rescue.

Between December 1963 and January 1964, Yeager completed five flights in the NASA M2-F1 lifting body. 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. There he flew 127 missions. In February 1968, Yeager was assigned command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, and led the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II wing in South Korea during the Pueblo crisis.

Yeager later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany, as well as in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In recognition of his achievements and the outstanding performance ratings of those units, he was promoted to brigadier general in 1969.

From 1971 to 1973, at the behest of Ambassador Joseph Farland, he was assigned to Pakistan to advise the Pakistan Air Force.

Yeager retired on March 1, 1975.

Post-retirement career

Brigadier General Yeager in 2000

For several years in the 1980s, Yeager was connected to General Motors, publicizing ACDelco, the company's automotive parts division. In 1986, he was invited to drive the Chevrolet Corvette pace car for the 70th running of the Indianapolis 500. In 1988, Yeager was again invited to drive the pace car, this time at the wheel of an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. In 1986, President Reagan appointed Yeager to the Rogers Commission that investigated the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

During this time, Yeager also served as a technical adviser for three Electronic Arts flight simulator video games: Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0, and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Missions featured several of Yeager's accomplishments and let players attempt to top his records. The game manuals featured quotes and anecdotes from Yeager, and were well received by players. Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer was Electronic Art's top selling game for 1987.

Yeager made a cameo appearance in the movie The Right Stuff (1983). He played "Fred," a bartender at "Pancho's Place", which Yeager said was most appropriate: "if all the hours were ever totaled, I reckon I spent more time at her place than in a cockpit over those years." His own role in the movie was played by Sam Shepard.

On October 14, 1997, on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight past Mach 1, he flew a new Glamorous Glennis III, an F-15D Eagle, past Mach 1. 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. At the end of his speech to the crowd in 1997, Yeager concluded, "All that I am ... I owe to the Air Force." Later that month, he was the recipient of the Tony Jannus Award for his achievements.

In 2009, Yeager participated in the documentary The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a profile of his friend Pancho Barnes. The documentary was screened at film festivals, aired on public television in the United States, and won an Emmy Award.

On October 14, 2012, on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager again passed the sound barrier at the age of 89, flying as co-pilot in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain David Vincent out of Nellis Air Force Base.

Legacy

Special Congressional Silver Medal awarded to Yeager in 1976

Yeager received many awards during his career, including the Harmon Trophy (1953), and the Collier Trophy and Mackay Trophy (1947), for breaking the sound barrier for the first time. He was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1966 and the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981.

In 1973, Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, arguably aviation's highest honor. In 1974, Yeager received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. 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." President Gerald Ford presented the medal to Yeager in a ceremony at the White House on December 8, 1976. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

A hero in war and peace, Charles Yeager has served his country with dedication and courage beyond ordinary measure. On October 14, 1947, in a rocket plane which he named Glamorous Glynnis after his wife, Chuck Yeager became the first human being to travel faster than the speed of sound, and in doing so, showed to the world the real meaning of The Right Stuff.

Yeager in 2012, in front of a new Glamorous Glennis III F-15D Eagle

Yeager, who never attended college and was often modest about his background, is considered by many, including Flying Magazine, the California Hall of Fame, the State of West Virginia, National Aviation Hall of Fame, a few U.S. presidents, and the United States Army Air Force, to be one of the greatest pilots of all time. Despite his lack of higher education, he was honored in his home state. Marshall University named its highest academic scholarship, the Society of Yeager Scholars, in his honor.

Yeager flew directly under the South Side Bridge in Charleston, WV, in October 1948, a flight that became legendary. Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named in his honor. The Interstate 64/Interstate 77 bridges over the Kanawha River are also named in his honor. 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.

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.

The Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer auxiliary of the USAF, awards the Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager Award to its Senior Members as part of its Aerospace Education program.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Carey, Edwin F. These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame. The Garrett Corporation, 1984. ASIN B004BIPPQ6
• Disney, Ryan. Escape & Evasion Report No. 686: The True Story of an American Fighter Pilot's Escape from Nazi-Occupied France. Amazon Digital Services, 2016. ASIN B01N9LBA0H
• Editors of Salem Press. American Heroes. Magill's Choice, 2008. ISBN 978-1587654602
• Ryan, Craig. Sonic Wind: The Story of John Paul Stapp and How a Renegade Doctor Became the Fastest Man on Earth. Liveright, 2015. ISBN 978-0871406774
• Samuel, Wolfgang W.E. American Raiders: The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets. University Press of Mississippi, 2004. ISBN 978-1578066490
• Sullivan, Ken (ed.). The West Virginia Encyclopedia. The West Virginia Humanities Council, 2006. ISBN 978-0977849802
• Williams, Colleen Madonna Flood. Chuck Yeager (Famous Flyers). Chelsea House Pub., 2003. ISBN 978-0791075005
• Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. Bantam, 1980. ISBN 978-0553240634
• Yeager, Chuck. Yeager: An Autobiography. Bantam, 1986. ISBN 978-0553256741
• Yeager, Chuck, and Charles Leerhsen. Press On!: Further Adventures in the Good Life. Bantam Books, 1988. ISBN 978-0553053333
• Yeager, Chuck, Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover, Jack Russell, and James Young. The Quest for Mach One: A First-Person Account of Breaking the Sound Barrier. Penguin Studio, 1997. ISBN 978-0670874606

External links

All links retrieved December 10, 2023.

• Chuck Yeager Official Website
• Biography from ChuckYeager.org
• Chuck Yeager Biography (1923–2020) Biography.com
• Charles “Chuck” Yeager The National Aviation Hall of Fame
• General Chuck Yeager, USAF American Academy of Achievement
• Chuck Yeager & the Sound Barrier Aerospaceweb.org
• Chuck Yeager at the Internet Movie Database
• Yeager obituary The New York Times
• 12 October 1944 This Day in Aviation.

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