Gen. Chuck Yeager, ‘Right Stuff’
test pilot who broke sound
barrier, dead at 97
Reuters,
by
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: Dreadnought,
12/8/2020 1:15:12 AM
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 be remembered forever,” Victoria Yeager said in the tweet.
Rest in peace. Another alpha male gone.
31 people like this.
Short video on Laura tonight. 90% of the aerial kills in the European theater were scored by only 11% of the American pilots. A comprehensive analysis immediately after the war to determine their common attributes revealed that every one of the 11% had grown up in rural America and hunted with guns. Something else Yeager was alleged to have going for him: 50-20 eyesight.
24 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 12/8/2020 1:59:21 AM (No. 625835)
RIP, Gen. Yeager. I have watched him fly in airshows many times, often with his WW2 wingman Bud Anderson flying his wing, both of them in P-51 Mustangs, and I have listened to him give talks about flying in auditoriums or under the wing of an aircraft, and he autographed my copy of his book for me.
A fine pilot, a gentleman, and a real hero who did great deeds.
26 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Annie Xango 12/8/2020 2:00:50 AM (No. 625837)
On wings of Angels...and to think he died on this day...
26 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 12/8/2020 3:07:02 AM (No. 625851)
Another of the Greatest Generation has ''Wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence.'' God rest him now and comfort those who were close to him. (from ''High Flight'' by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.)
23 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DaddyO 12/8/2020 3:59:58 AM (No. 625860)
Actually got discharged from the army for machine gunning a cow, then re-enlisted as a private in the army air corps right before the war started.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
watashiyo 12/8/2020 5:21:00 AM (No. 625876)
Another patriot who defined America gone. Thank you and RIP General!
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Highlander 12/8/2020 6:24:57 AM (No. 625903)
It’s strange how that 10 to 11% makes the difference in political control and outcomes of war. I read that only 10% of the American colonists actually were involved in direct conflict with the Brits in our War for Independence. Also that the total number of actual card-carrying members of the communist party in the former USSR was the same percentage.
7 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
lindamay 12/8/2020 7:15:30 AM (No. 625935)
I'm sorry to hear this. R.I.P. Mr. Yeager.
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 12/8/2020 7:39:22 AM (No. 625953)
Didn’t know him but I did fly on his wing once in Korea back in ‘68 during the Pueblo disaster.......he was the Wing King of the 4th Fighter Wing out of Seymour-Johnson at the time.
15 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
VELOX 12/8/2020 7:56:21 AM (No. 625971)
I missed a person to person meet up with Chuck by about a minute when he got called away at the last minute!
When the sound barrier was broken 3 pilots were involved. Chuck, Bob Hover and Dick Frost. I met Hoover a number of times and Dick Frost was my father in laws lifelong friend. Dick a Bell test pilot and engineer used to hold my wife on his lap in 1943/44 in Brownsville Texas. When I missed meeting with Chuck, I told the facilitator don’t worry, I will meet him again. I never did!
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 12/8/2020 8:11:44 AM (No. 625999)
One of America's greatest. I read his book shortly after it came out. Definitely worth the read. He attributed his success as a fighter pilot to his excellent vision 20 15. He was able to see the enemy fighters long before they could see him. Yeager was a class act and a true patriot.
May he rest in peace.
16 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 12/8/2020 8:21:27 AM (No. 626008)
He had an amazing life. Hopefully his accomplishments are remembered for centuries. May be rest in peace.
11 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Venturer 12/8/2020 9:26:29 AM (No. 626092)
A truly great man, who faced death many times and beat it.
RIP Chuck;
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Strike3 12/8/2020 9:31:15 AM (No. 626099)
You couldn't find a better example of a real American. I still have a copy somewhere of the "Flight" magazine with Yeager posing beside the Bell X-1. I did not know that he piloted a Mustang in the war. What a thrilling life. RIP.
4 people like this.
Kinda glad this patriot doesn't have to watch what the democrat party is doing to the country he loved.
Sad.
6 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
gobushcheneygo 12/8/2020 9:57:26 AM (No. 626128)
(Glamourous) Glennis has been waiting for you, General. May the Lord bless you and keep you. And thank you for your service. RIP.
6 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
smokincol 12/8/2020 10:14:05 AM (No. 626143)
don't base any descriptors of any man on a single movie. movies are, basically, fiction and enhance and omit many levels of any one subject, in this case Chuck Yeager. he was more than a celluloid figure and in real life was a certified, genuine master of aerial combat, which led to his being chosen for the space program. the U.S. space agency wanted men who could "fly" their space vessels and not just be passengers. Chuck Yeager proved he could do that in WWII. check his war record and personal inspirational characteristics to see the "real" Chuck Yeager and not the celluloid version. once again, the people who comment on Lucianne.com are and will always be the deliverers of truth.
2 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 12/8/2020 1:09:12 PM (No. 626275)
It is sad how his extraordinary life ended - married to a much younger woman, estranged from his children, fighting them in court over money and declared incompetent to represent himself in a 2015 court case.
RIP Chuck.
2 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
JimJr 12/8/2020 1:43:16 PM (No. 626297)
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Pilot officer Gillespie Magee
No. 412 Squadron, RCAF
KIA 11 December 1941
2 people like this.
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