Yahoo Home Chuck Yeager
| Born | February 13, 1923 |
| Hometown | Myra, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Height | 5'10" (1.78m) |
| Spouse | Victoria Scott D'Angelo (m 2003 - 2020) , Glennis Dickhouse (m 1945 - 1990) |
| Children | Susan Yeager , Michael Yeager , Don Yeager , Sharon Yeager Flick |
| Parents | Susie Mae Yeager , Albert Hal Yeager |
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Sir Frank Whittle: the test pilot who revolutionised aviation
- News of the death of Chuck Yeager last week, aged 97, prompted tributes across the aerospace world to ‘the man who broke the sound barrier’. As a young US Air Force test pilot in October 1947, Yeager raced across the sky over California’s Mojave desert in a bullet-shaped experimental plane called the Bell X-1. It marked the start of the celebrated era in American military aviation that was chronicled in such dizzying style by Tom Wolfe in his 1979 book The Right Stuff. (Yeager, wrote Wolfe, was ‘the most righteous’ of all who possessed said stuff.) In most of its essentials, though, the shape of the Bell X-1 was fashioned by British engineers in the home counties. They called it the M.52 and began work on it in 1944 at the main plant of a small manufacturer called Miles Aircraft in Berkshire. It was to be powered by two W.2/700 jet engines – the latest in a succession of highly innovative designs by the man whose pioneering work on jet flight transformed the world of civil as well as military aviation: Frank Whittle. Whittle himself had once been a brave test pilot. As an RAF officer in 1931 he had been seconded briefly to the Royal Navy, to fly planes catapulted off ships. (One of his roles involved making ‘pancake’ landings on the sea, to test the efficiency of newly invented flotation bags. Whittle made several landings, never mentioning to anyone that he couldn’t swim.) He flew at little more than 100mph in those days, in biplanes with wire-braced wings and fabric-covered fuselages. Many great engineers contributed to the astonishing leap in aircraft technology that led from those biplanes to supersonic flight less than 20 years later.
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- ScienceThe Telegraph
Chuck Yeager, American pilot and war hero who was first to break the sound barrier – obituary
Chuck Yeager, who has died aged 97, was an American test pilot and wartime “ace” who in 1947 flew the first aircraft to break the sound barrier; like many of his profession, his flying feats were matched by daredevil driving and hard drinking, but he remained happily married to Glennis, after whom he named all his aircraft, for 55 years. The so-called sound barrier was a supposed obstacle to any aircraft exceeding the speed of sound. Wartime pilots flying advanced fighters, including RAF Spitfir
- CelebrityThe Independent
Chuck Yeager, pilot who broke speed of sound, dies
The US aviation legend’s life was immortalised in the 1980s film, ‘The Right Stuff’
- PoliticsEvening Standard
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
- PoliticsThe Telegraph
Chuck Yeager, 'Right Stuff' test pilot who broke sound barrier, dies aged 97
Chuck Yeager, the steely "Right Stuff" test pilot who took aviation to the doorstep of space by becoming the first person to break the sound barrier more than 70 years ago, died on Monday at the age of 97. Yeager's death was announced on his twitter account by his wife, Victoria. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will
- NewsThe Guardian
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- NewsSky News
Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break the sound barrier, dies aged 97
Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, has died aged 97. The US World War Two fighter pilot's exploits were told in Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" and the 1983 film it inspired. Retired Air Force Brigadier General Charles "Chuck" Yeager was a 24-year-old captain when he flew a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than 660mph to break the sound barrier on 14 October 1947.
- PoliticsReuters
Gen Chuck Yeager, 'Right Stuff' test pilot who broke sound barrier, dead at 97
Chuck Yeager, the steely "Right Stuff" test pilot who took aviation to the doorstep of space by becoming the first person to break the sound barrier more than 70 years ago, died on Monday at the age of 97. Yeager's death was announced on his twitter account by his wife, Victoria. Yeager, an unlikely candidate to become one of the most famous aviators in history, joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 just to work on the engines of airplanes, not to fly them.
- PoliticsAFP
Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break sound barrier, dies aged 97
Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter ace who was the first human to travel faster than sound and whose gutsy test pilot exploits were immortalized in the bestselling book "The Right Stuff," died Monday, his wife said. He was 97.
- EntertainmentThe Telegraph
Faster, farther, realer: Chuck Yeager and the making of The Right Stuff
This piece first ran in June, and has been republished following the death of Chuck Yeager To play the role of pilot and astronaut “Gordo” Cooper in The Right Stuff, Dennis Quaid really did learn to fly. He surprised director Philip Kauffman and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel with his new skills – by taking off as they sat together in a small plane. “What the f–––‘s going on here!?” Kauffman recalled them saying. “Caleb and I were terrified.” The real-life Gordo Cooper was a member of the Mercu
- BusinessReuters
The wrong stuff? Chuck Yeager, pilot who broke sound barrier, sues Airbus
In a complaint filed on Wednesday that refers to him as "one of the most, if not the most, famous pilots of all time," the 96-year-old Yeager objected to a June 2017 piece on Airbus' website about making the Airbus Racer a fast and cost-effective way to fly. The piece quoted Guillaume Faury, now Airbus' chief executive officer and at the time Airbus Helicopters' CEO, as saying: "Seventy years ago, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier," and Airbus was now "trying to break the cost barrier.
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