Because of the pain, he had to use a sawed-off broomstick to close the X-1’s cockpit before takeoff.Ī B-29 bomber carried the X-1 26,000 feet (7,925 m) over California’s Mojave Desert and let it go. He had broken two ribs in a horseback riding accident a few days before but did not tell his superiors for fear they would ground him. 14, 1947, in the bright orange Bell X-1 craft. Yeager was a 24-year-old captain, testing out a dozen planes a week, when he first outraced sound on Oct. Flying a P-51 Mustang named Glamorous Glennis in tribute to his girlfriend, Glennis Dickhouse, he was credited with 12 “kills” of German planes - including five in a single dogfight.Īfter the war he became a test pilot and was assigned to Muroc Air Force Base in California as part of the secret XS-1 project, which had a goal of hitting Mach 1, the speed of sound. Those attributes served Yeager well in World War Two. Wolfe said Yeager was blessed with “the right stuff” that made him a legendary test pilot but Yeager said it was more a matter of luck, better-than-average vision and a thorough knowledge of his planes. He considered them mere passengers “throwing the right switches on instructions from the ground.”Īuthor Tom Wolfe was so impressed by the mien of the rough-hewn man from Hamlin, West Virginia, that he made Yeager a prominent character in “The Right Stuff,” his 1979 book about the early days of the space program.

space program because he never went to college but he was hardly heartbroken not to become an astronaut. Yeager was passed over for the burgeoning U.S. Army Air Corps in 1941 just to work on the engines of airplanes, not to fly them. Yeager, an unlikely candidate to become one of the most famous aviators in history, joined the U.S. 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.

“It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET.

Yeager’s death was announced on his twitter account by his wife, Victoria. FILE PHOTO: General Chuck Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier, speaks to a crowd Decemduring the weeklong First Flight Centennial Celebration that is taking place at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

Chuck yeager the right stuff book