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Edwards Air Force Base, California – October 12, 2007 – Sixty years ago Chuck Yeager, then just 24 years old and an Air Force test pilot, took a flight that lasted only 14 minutes. But it was long enough to land him in the record books and change the course of aviation.
On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager flew the experimental rocket-powered Bell X-1 and broke the sound barrier over the town of Victorville, California.
After being dropped from a modified Boeing B-29 "Superfortress" at 20,000-feet, Yeager turned on all four cylinders of the X-1 and leveled off at about 42,000 feet before he reached 1.05 Mach. “The needle of the machmeter fluctuated at this reading momentarily, then passed off the scale,” he later wrote in his flight report.
For years before Yeager’s historic flight, scientists had speculated that there was an invisible “barrier” that would destroy any airplane trying to exceed the speed of sound. Yeager’s flight proved there was no such barrier and set the stage for designers to create aircraft that could fly many times faster than the speed of sound.
Yeager, now 84, told the AFP that supersonic speed allowed the U.S. military to fly “faster than the enemy.” But, he said, it also opened up space.
In fact, 10 years later, the United States launched the Mercury Space program, the predecessor of the Apollo program that eventually landed the first human on the moon.
Portrayed in the Hollywood film “The Right Stuff,” Yeager recalled the advice he received from his mentor at the time, Col. Albert Boyd of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA. "Get above MACH 1 as soon as you can, don't bust your butt, and don't embarrass the Air Force," Yeager says Boyd told him.
Since that historic day, breaking the sound barrier has become an almost routine act, including by Yeager, who told AFP that the number of times he has flown faster than the speed of sound is "too many to count."
In fact, as recently as Sept. 21, 2007, Yeager flew faster than the speed of sound, this time flying an F-16, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of his achievement.
Yeager’s famous airplane the Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis” is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Chuck Yeager at a glance
• Charles Elwood Yeager was born Feb. 13, 1923 in Myra, West Virginia.
• He graduated from high school in June 1941, and at 18, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.
• He worked as an aircraft mechanic and pilot before going over the Atlantic to fight in World War II. During World War II, he became an “Ace” flying in the P-51 “Mustang.”
• Returning from the war, he entered test pilot school and was selected to fly the Bell X-1, making him the first pilot to break the sound barrier.
• During the 1950s, he flew several experimental aircraft for the Air Force and investigated various accidents.
• In 1960 he was appointed director of the Space School at Edwards Air Force Base.
• He went to Vietnam as a wing commander in 1966 and flew more than 120 combat missions.
• In 1986, Yeager was appointed to the Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger accident.
• Yeager eventually attained the rank of brigadier general and his flying career has spanned more than six decades and taken him to every corner of the globe.
• In addition to his military career, Gen. Yeager also volunteered to chair the EAA Young Eagles program from 1994 – 2003 and flew the 1 millionth Young Eagle. Since then, he has remained active in the program as Chairman Emeritus.
• Gen. Yeager has also established the General Chuck Yeager Foundation which has a mission to support programs which teach the ideals by which Gen. Yeager has lived his life: honor, integrity and courage in our daily conduct, a strong sense of public service and duty to our country, excellence, and an intellectual curiosity.
• The General has written two books. The first is called “Yeager: An Autobiography” (Bantam Books, 1986 ISBN 0-553-256742) and “Press on! Further Adventures in the Good Life” (Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub, 1988 ISBN 0-553-053337). Both are currently out of print, but are available in many libraries or through used bookstores.
• Gen. Yeager and his wife, Victoria, live in California.
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Capt. Chuck Yeager poses outside the Bell X-1 in 1947.
The rocket-powered Bell X-1 in flight. With Capt. Yeager at the controls, the X-1 became the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound in level flight.
The Bell X-1 as it is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The X-1 hangs in the same gallery as the Wright Flyer and Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis.”
Gen. Chuck Yeager today.
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