First pilot to break sound barrier dies, aged 97
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World War II fighter ace Chuck Yeager, seen here at a red carpet event in Sacramento, California, in 2009, set numerous flight records, but most of his career was spent as a military commander directing US fighter squadrons in the 1950s and 1960s.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
WASHINGTON • World War II fighter ace Chuck Yeager, who was the first man to travel faster than sound and whose gutsy test pilot exploits were immortalised in the Hollywood blockbuster The Right Stuff, died on Monday. He was 97.
"It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET," Mrs Victoria Yeager tweeted on her husband's account.
"An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever."
She did not specify the cause of her husband's death.
Mr Yeager rocketed into history by breaking the sound barrier in the experimental Bell X-1 research aircraft in 1947, helping to pave the way for the US space programme.
"It opened up space, Star Wars, satellites," Mr Yeager said in a 2007 interview.
Charles Elwood Yeager was born on Feb 13, 1923, in Myra, West Virginia, and grew up fixing pick-up trucks alongside his father.
He joined the Army Air Corps in September 1941, three months before the United States entered World War II, and started out as an aircraft mechanic before undergoing flight training.
Based in England, Mr Yeager began flying combat missions in a P-51 Mustang long-range fighter in February 1944.
He was shot down behind enemy lines in March 1944 but was able to rejoin his unit in England with the help of the French resistance after a harrowing trek over the Pyrenees.
Mr Yeager resumed combat and was credited with 12½ aerial victories by the war's end, including downing five German Bf 109s on a single day.
He booked his place in history as a test pilot when he broke the sound barrier in the rocket-powered Bell X-1 on Oct 14, 1947, earning him the title of The Fastest Man Alive. After the X-1 was dropped from the belly of a B-29 bomber at 13,700m, he flew at supersonic Mach 1.06 (1,130 kmh).
Mr Yeager's colleague Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin, another test pilot for Bell Laboratories, once famously described the X-1 as a "bullet with wings". It was modelled after a .50-calibre bullet, with short wings and a pointed tip, allowing it to pierce the air more efficiently.
The aircraft, nicknamed Glamorous Glennis in honour of Mr Yeager's first wife, is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
Before his historic flight, Mr Yeager said he received advice from Colonel Albert Boyd, who headed the Air Force's supersonic flight programme.
"Get above Mach 1 as soon as you can, don't bust your butt, and don't embarrass the Air Force," Mr Yeager said Col Boyd told him.
"I had done what the old man had sent us out to do," Mr Yeager said.
Mr Yeager's accomplishment was depicted in the 1983 film The Right Stuff, based on the book by Tom Wolfe.
American actor Sam Shepard received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Mr Yeager in the movie.
Mr Yeager would go on to set numerous other flight records, but most of his career was spent as a military commander directing US fighter squadrons throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
He retired from the US Air Force in 1975 as a brigadier-general, having logged more than 10,000 hours of flight time in around 360 different models of military aircraft.
Mr Yeager was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973, and he kept flying into his later years, even breaking the sound barrier at age 89.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
