Chuck Yeager: America’s Supersonic Man

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Picture this: you’re 50,000 feet in the air, controlling an experimental tiny rocket-powered airplane designed for one purpose—to fly as fast as it possibly can. Your mission is to do something no human being has ever done before, and you know that any number of things—a small mistake, a tiny flaw in the plane’s design, bad luck, or the whims of fate—could lead to your sudden and very violent death. Most people would say you’d be crazy to even consider doing such a thing, but then most people aren’t Chuck Yeager.

Over a career that spans seven decades, Yeager became one of America’s most famous aviators, primarily known for being the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947. But Chuck Yeager was so much more than that one awe-inspiring flight; he was also a war hero and a trailblazing test pilot who helped expand our knowledge of aircraft behavior at high speeds and altitudes—a critical foundation for mankind’s ascent into space. He transcended the cockpit to become a cultural icon, with books and movies made about his deeds. Today, we’ll tell you about Chuck Yeager’s extraordinary life.

Charles Elrod Yeager was born on February 13, 1923, on a farm in rural West Virginia. Not wanting to be a farmer, he joined the army a few months after graduating from high school in 1941. Originally enlisted as an aircraft mechanic, the outbreak of World War II provided the catalyst for his advancement as he was accepted into flight school and commissioned as an officer sent to Europe. Yeager flew P-51 Mustang fighters and participated in aerial duels with the German Luftwaffe. In March 1944, his airplane was shot down over occupied France, and he spent three weeks behind enemy lines before escaping to neutral Spain with the help of the French resistance.

Returning to England, Yeager protested against a policy that prohibited him from flying over enemy territory since he had already been shot down once. After an appeal to Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Yeager was given permission to resume flying. He went on to see more combat, including a memorable occasion when he became an ace in a day, credited with downing five aircraft on a single mission. He ended the war with 11.5 aerial victories, as well as both the Silver and Bronze Stars and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Rather than taking a cushy desk job upon returning to the U.S., Yeager became a test pilot. The post-war world was one of remarkable scientific advancement, particularly in aviation, as the U.S. military tapped the knowledge of German scientists captured at the end of the conflict. The military needed to test various designs in the air, and most of this testing was conducted at a military airfield in the Mojave Desert of California, now called Edwards Air Force Base. The pilots stationed there were an eclectic bunch, as being a test pilot was exceedingly dangerous—on average, each pilot had a 53% chance of being killed in the line of duty.

Among this group was 24-year-old Chuck Yeager, considered one of the best. He was selected for one of the most important test flights in aviation history. Up to that point, aircraft designers had been unable to create a plane capable of breaking the so-called sound barrier—flying faster than the speed of sound, approximately 750 miles per hour. The stresses placed on both pilot and plane as they approached Mach 1 were enormous, and even if the airframe survived, it was not uncommon for a pilot going that fast to lose control and crash.

In 1947, the United States Air Force believed it had a plane that could break the sound barrier: the Bell X-1, a state-of-the-art rocket-powered plane designed to be dropped from a modified B-29 bomber at altitude. The military turned to Yeager, who agreed to go for it. On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager strapped into the X-1, which he had named “Glamorous Glennis” after his wife, preparing to fly faster than any man had ever gone before. What he hadn’t told anyone was that two days before the flight, he had fallen while horseback riding and broken two ribs. He concealed the injury from the Air Force so he wouldn’t be pulled from the mission.

When the B-29 mother ship reached an altitude of 45,000 feet, Yeager’s plane was dropped, and he activated the engine, shooting off across the Southern California sky. He called out his progress over the radio: Mach .97, .98, .99, and then ground observers heard a loud bang—a sonic boom, an extremely loud shock wave that occurs when an aircraft reaches a speed faster than the speed of sound. He had done it! By the time the X-1 landed safely, Chuck Yeager was a national hero—the first recorded supersonic man.

Rather than resting on his laurels, he continued to fly dangerous and important test flights for the Air Force. In 1953, he set a new speed record when his upgraded X-1A aircraft reached a speed of Mach 2.44. Granted, almost immediately afterward, he lost control of his plane and dropped over 50,000 feet in less than a minute, but he was able to recover and land without further incident. After a stint commanding squadrons of fighter jets, in 1962, Yeager was promoted to colonel and assigned as the first commandant of the USAF Air Force Research Pilot School, responsible for training astronauts.

Yeager and the other test pilots worked on high-speed, high-altitude flights and helped pave the way for sending men into outer space. While many considered Yeager one of the Air Force’s most outstanding pilots, he was not selected to become an astronaut. The key difference was that Yeager had never graduated from college, while his contemporaries had. For his part, Yeager never appeared to be bothered about not being asked to go to space.

In December 1963, Yeager’s test flying career came to an abrupt end when the NF-104 jet he was piloting lost complete control and entered a flat spin. After losing 95,000 feet of altitude, he decided the aircraft was unrecoverable and triggered the ejection seat. Unfortunately, the rocket motor struck him in the face, shattering his helmet visor and igniting his emergency oxygen supply. Yeager suffered serious burns to his face, requiring a long recovery process.

After this near-death experience, Yeager decided that test flying was a younger man’s game. However, he continued to serve in various capacities, including command of a fighter squadron during the Vietnam War. In 1975, after a 33-year career, General Yeager retired from the Air Force. His fame as a pilot had long been eclipsed by that of the astronauts, but he gained renewed recognition with the publication of “The Right Stuff” in 1979, which highlighted the achievements of test pilots like Yeager.

Yeager’s newfound popularity found him thrust back into the public eye in various ways, including an autobiography published in 1985 and appearances in video games. He was invited to drive the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 and appeared in television advertisements. Yeager was also appointed by President Reagan to the Rogers Commission, which investigated the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

Yeager lived with his wife, Glennis, in Northern California until she passed away in 1990. The couple had raised four children together, two of whom followed in their father’s footsteps with long careers in the Air Force. Retirement didn’t diminish Yeager’s thirst for speed; on the 50th anniversary of his historic Mach 1 flight in 1997, he broke the sound barrier again, piloting an F-15 fighter jet. Remarkably, he did it again at the age of 89, this time as a passenger.

Yeager’s later years were not without controversy. In 2000, he met and fell in love with Victoria DeAngelo, an actress 35 years his junior. They married in 2003, which caused a rift between Yeager and his children. A lawsuit was filed, but the court sided with Yeager. He expressed that he would do whatever he wanted to be happy.

On December 7, 2020, Chuck Yeager passed away in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 97. His death touched off a wave of mourning nationwide. He was buried with full military honors in a ceremony that took place on January 15, 2021. Yeager was so well-respected that his funeral brought together politicians from both parties to pay their respects.

Often called America’s greatest pilot, Chuck Yeager represents the bridge between the aerial cowboys of the two World Wars and the highly educated, technology-savvy professionals of today. Though described as having “the right stuff,” Yeager himself attributed his skill in the cockpit to exceptional vision, thorough knowledge of his airplane, and a bit of good luck. His contributions to aviation will long be remembered by historians, military officers, space enthusiasts, and anyone who watches the books and films made about his life and achievements—not bad for a humble farm boy from West Virginia.