Yeager broke the sound barrier when he tested the X-1 in October 1947, although the feat was not publicly announced until 1948.
She tweeted, “America’s greatest pilot, incredible life was well lived.”
His legacy also captured the next generation, featured in the book and the 1983 film “The Right Stuff.”
“This is a sad day for America,” John Nicoletti, a friend of the year and chief of the ground crew, told CNN on Monday night. “After he broke the sound barrier, now we all have permission to break the barrier.”
Nicoletti said Yager has faced some physical challenges in recent years and has had a decline that has led to complications and other problems due to his age.
Eiger lived in Northern California, but died at a Los Angeles hospital, Nicoletti said.
Nicoletti recalls her friend, “Yeager never complained. “He was an incredibly adventurous man.”
During the war
Yayzer was promoted to reserve flight officer in 1943, before becoming a pilot in the I-Air Force’s Fighter Command in England.
During World War II, he flew 64 missions and shot down 13 German planes, according to his biography on Britannica.
Friend Nicoletti explained, “Many didn’t make it in World War II. Most didn’t make it in the early days of test piloting.” “The hardships of survival for Chuck were as narrow as the strangeness of America’s own independence.”
Yeiger was shot down on his eighth combat mission over France in March 1944, but was rescued by French underground, according to his website.
He joined the U.S. Army in 1945. Went back and married his wife Glenis, for whom he named many of his fighter jets.
Climb to break the barrier
Following the war, Iyer became a flight instructor and a test pilot, serving as an assistant maintenance officer in the Flight Test Division’s Fighter Division at Wright Field, Ohio.
Yeezer’s exceptional skills were quickly recognized, and he was asked to perform in airshows as well as in service trials for new aircraft, according to his website.
In 1946, Colonel Albert Boyd was chief of the Flight Test Division, and Yayzer was selected to be a student at Wright Field’s new test pilot school.
While he had only one high school education, Yager credited his success in the program to his flying abilities.
Colonel Boyd chose Yager to fly the rocket-propelled Bell X-1. “He chose Yager because he believed he was the best ‘instinctive’ pilot he had ever seen and showed extraordinary ability to stay calm and focus in stressful situations.”
After months of flights with the X-1, Yeager broke the sound barrier with his plane, which he named Glamorous Glenis on Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California on October 14, 1947.
The X-1 reached a speed of 1.06 or 700 miles per hour, making Jager the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound and earn the title of “Fastest Man Alive”.
Setting more records
Eager continued to test the aircraft for the following years and pushed the limits, setting a speed record for a straight-wing aircraft of March 2.44, 1953, December 1953.
Yeager was awarded the Harmon International Trophy in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for breaking the record.
He then commanded Operational 17th Fighter Bomber Squadron in 1954 and returned to Operation Flying at Hehn Air Base in Germany and then at Toul-Rogers Air Base in France.
In 1957, Yeager returned to California and George commanded the 1st Fighter Day Squadron at AFB, according to his website.
He became Colonel in 1962 and Commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School. There, he “presided over the development of his first-of-its-kind organization designed to prepare U.S. military test pilots for spaceflight,” according to his website.
With 26 earning astronauts flying wings in J.M., Apollo and space shuttle programs, U.S. Seventy graduates of that program were selected for the space program.
During the 1960s, his position in the Air Force took him to the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea.
Eiger retired from the Air Force in 1975 with the rank of Brigadier General, flying 10,131.6 hours in about 361 different types and models of military aircraft during his career, according to the website.
After retiring
When his official service was completed, Yeager continued to be a valuable consultant to the government and the aerospace industry, his website said.
Yager was one of many featured in the 1983 film The Right Stuff, adapted from Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction novel about the first 15 years of the American space program.
In 1997, at the age of 74, Yeger flew the F-15 Eagle, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his landmark flight in the X-1.
His friend Nicoletti told CNN, “General Yager represents the best of us. For me, Chuck Yager will always be the voice of freedom.”
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