America’s greatest pilot Chuck Yeager who became first person to fly supersonic dies age 97

Yeager was immortalised in the Hollywood film The Right Stuff
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Chuck Yeager pictured in 2012 preparing to board an F-15D Eagle
US AIR FORCE/AFP via Getty Image
Michael Howie8 December 2020

The retired fighter pilot Chuck Yeager, who became the first person to break the sound barrier and was immortalised in The Right Stuff, has died at the age of 97.

His wife, Victoria Yeager, announced on Tuesday that the retired US Air Force Brigadier General had passed away the day before.  

“An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever,” she said on his Twitter account.  

The World War II fighter ace became best known for his exploits as a test pilot which paved the way for successful space missions. In 1947, he pushed a bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph to break the sound barrier. Yeager nicknamed the plane “Glamorous Glennis” in tribute to his wife who died in 1990.  

Yeager, from West Virginia, flew for more than 60 years, including piloting an X-15 to nearly 1,000mph in October 2002 at age 79.

His exploits were told in Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff, and the 1983 film it inspired.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Yeager’s death is “a tremendous loss to our nation.” 

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US Air Force handout photo from 1962 showing Chuck Yeager at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where he commanded the Test Pilot School
USAF/AFP via Getty Images

“Gen. Yeager’s pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America’s abilities in the sky and set our nation’s dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age,” he said.  

"He said, `You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done,"' Mr Bridenstine added.  

"In an age of media-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. 

Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1941. He later regretted that his lack of a college education prevented him from becoming an astronaut.

He started off as an aircraft mechanic and, despite becoming severely airsick during his first airplane ride, signed up for a programme that allowed enlisted men to become pilots.

Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions during World War II, including five on a single mission. He was once shot down over German-held France but escaped with the help of French partisans. 

After World War II, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Among the flights he made after breaking the sound barrier was one on December 12, 1953, when he flew an X-1A to a record of more than 1,600 mph. He said he had woken up at dawn that day and went hunting, bagging a goose before his flight. That night, he said, his family ate the goose for dinner.

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 also commanded Air Force fighter squadrons and wings, and the Aerospace Research Pilot School for military astronauts.

Yeager was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Collier air trophy in December 1948 for his breaking the sound barrier. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985.

"Living to a ripe old age is not an end in itself. The trick is to enjoy the years remaining," Yeager said in his memoir, "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, it won't be with a frown on my face. I've had a ball."

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