The aviation world is mourning the death of Chuck Yeager, a decorated U. S. Air Force test pilot who became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947. Yeager, 97, was remembered Monday as "America's greatest Pilot" in a tweet attributed to his wife, Victoria Scott D'Angelo. He was “the most righteous of all those with the right stuff,” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards. Although he is most famous for earning the title "The Fastest Man Alive," Yeager continued to break records and returned to combat after breaking the sound barrier. Still, Yeager never sought the spotlight and in 2011 told NPR he was just "at the right place at the right time.""You don't do it for the — to get your damn picture on the front page of the newspaper," he told the outlet. "You do it because it's duty. It's your job."Here's a look at his remarkable career:Born in West Virginia in 1923, Yeager joined the Air Force at 18 where he rose to fame as a fighter pilot in World War II, according to his website. He was credited with shooting down at least a dozen enemy aircraft — including more than four planes twice in one day: Oct. 12 and Nov. 27, 1944, according to CNN editorial research. He was shot down on his eighth combat mission in March 1944 but was able to evade capture with the help of the French, rejoin his unit in England and eventually return to combat, his website said. After WWII, Yeager became a test pilot who broke numerous records for speed and altitude. Yeager broke the sound barrier while flying over California's Mojave Desert in 1947. His X-1 aircraft was lifted to 25,000 feet and then released through the bomb bay of a B-29, soaring to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 mph, the sound barrier at that altitude. Yeager’s feat was kept top secret for about a year when the world thought the British had broken the sound barrier first. His celebrity status rose further when the story of his most celebrated accomplishment was captured in Tom Wolfe's best-selling 1979 book "The Right Stuff" and he was portrayed by Sam Shepard in the 1983 movie it inspired. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Collier air trophy in December 1948 for his breaking the sound barrier. In 2012, on the 65th anniversary and at age 89, Yeager did it again as a passenger in an F-15 at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. Among the flights he made after breaking the sound barrier was one on Dec. 12. 1953, when he flew an X-1A to a record of more than 1,600 mph. Yeager also returned to fly combat missions in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He retired from the military in 1975 having flown 10,131.6 hours in some 361 different types and models of military aircraft during his career, according to his website. Yeager was also awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985.


All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com
Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/08/chuck-yeager-test-pilot-break-sound-barrier-how-did-it/6488065002/


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