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American General Charles “Chuck” Yeager, considered an ace of World War II fighter pilots and who, in 1947, was the first to break the sound barrier, died on Monday at the age of 97.
The death of the pilot, which occurred in the US state of California, was announced by the woman, Victoria Yeager, on her personal account on the social network Twitter.
It is with deep sadness that I inform you that the love of my life, General Chuck Yeager, passed away shortly after 9 pm local time (5 am on Tuesday in mainland Portugal). An incredible life, well lived, the best driver in America and a legacy of strength, adventure and patriotism that will be remembered forever, ”the woman wrote.
Yeager’s death is “a tremendous loss to the nation,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.
“Yeager’s pioneering and innovative spirit moved America forward in the aviation business and defined our nation’s dreams in the jet age and space age. Yeager said, ‘Don’t focus on the risks. Focus on the risks. Results. None of the risks are too great to avoid doing what needs to be done, “Bridenstine recalled.
“In an era of heroes created by the ‘media’, he is the true hero,” said Edwards Air Force Base historian Jim Young in August 2006 at the unveiling of a bronze statue honoring Yeager.
He was “the fairest of all and he had everything right,” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, commander of the Edwards Air Force Flight Test Center.
Born in Myra, a small West Virginia community, where he was born on February 23, 1923, Chuch Yeager flew for more than 60 years, having piloted an F-15 at approximately 1,609 km / hourat Edwards. It was October 2002 and the pilot was 79 years old.
“Living to old age is not an end in itself. The trick is to enjoy the years that remain,” wrote the pilot in “Yeager: An Autobiography” (“Yeager: An autobiography”, in a free translation).
On October 14, 1947, Yeager, a 24-year-old captain, broke the sound barrier over the city of Victorville, California. In the 1950s, he piloted test planes for the United States Air Force, having also investigated several plane crashes. In 1960, he was appointed director of the space school at Edwards Air Force Base.
When it broke the sound barrier, the military said it could have flown faster if the plane had more fuel. “It was good, it was like traveling in a car at high speed,” he said at the time.
Yeager named the plane with which he broke the sound barrier, as well as all the planes he flew, with the name “Glamorous Glennis”, in honor of the first woman, who died in 1990.
Yeager’s accomplishment in hitting the sound barrier wasn’t revealed until a year later, when the world thought it was the British who did it.
“It wasn’t about not having planes flying at that speed. It was about keeping them from disintegrating,” he said, by the way.
Sixty-five years after that feat, Yeager celebrated it on October 14, 2012, flying in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle that broke the sound barrier more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) above the desert. Mojave, California.
Chuck Yeager’s exploits were recounted in Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff”, adapted for film in the 1983 film “The Elected,” directed by Philip Kaufman.
Charles Yeager enlisted in the US Army Air Forces in 1941. He later regretted not attending college, which prevented him from becoming an astronaut.
He started out as an aircraft mechanic and, although he became seriously ill on his first plane trip, he enrolled in a program that allowed recruits to become pilots.
In World War II, Yeager shot down 13 German aircraft in 64 missions, including five in a single mission. He suffered a plane crash in German-occupied France, having survived thanks to the help of French soldiers.
After World War II, he became a test pilot at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Yeager also commanded Air Force squadrons and fighter wings, as well as the Aerospace Research Pilot School for military astronauts.
“I flew 341 types of military aircraft in every country in the world and logged about 18,000 flight hours,” he said in an interview with Men’s Journal in January 2009.
Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal and Purple Heart are some of the decorations with which he was distinguished.
In December 1948, President Harry Truman awarded him the Collier Air Trophy for breaking the sound barrier. In 1985, he was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 and moved to a ranch in Cedar Ridge, Northern California, where he continued to work as a consultant for the Air Force and Northrop Corp.
Since his first marriage, celebrated on February 26, 1945, in California, with Glennis Dickhouse of Oroville, he had four children: Donald, Michael, Sharon and Susan.
In 2003 he married, for the second time, to Victoria Scott D’Angelo, who was 45 years old at the time.
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