CHARLES E. YEAGER, EXCEEDING THE SPEED OF SOUND

Today, The Grandma is at home preparing the last session of her Communication Skills course. She has been reading news and she has realized that Charles Elwood Yeager, the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight, had died.

The Grandma has been searching more information about this American pilot and she wants to talk about him to pay homage to him and remember his great conquest.

Charles Elwood Yeager (February 13, 1923-December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight.

Yeager's career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army Air Forces in 1941.

More information: American Fighter Aces Association

After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of flight officer, the World War II USAAF equivalent to warrant officer, later achieving most of his aerial victories as a P-51 fighter pilot on the Western Front, where he was credited with shooting down 11.5 enemy aircraft, the half credit is from a second pilot assisting him in a single shootdown.

After the war, Yeager became a test pilot and flew many types of aircraft, including experimental rocket-powered aircraft for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. As such, he became the first human to officially break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947 when he flew the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 13,700 m, for which he won both the Collier and Mackay trophies in 1948. He then went on to break several other speed and altitude records in the following years.

Yeager later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany, as well as in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units, he was promoted to brigadier general in 1969, retiring on March 1, 1975.

More information: Air Space Mag

Yeager's three-war active-duty flying career spanned more than 30 years and took him to many parts of the world, including the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. Throughout his life, he flew more than 360 different types of aircraft.

Yeager was born February 13, 1923, to farming parents Susie Mae and Albert Hal Yeager (1896–1963) in Myra, West Virginia. When he was five, his family moved to Hamlin, West Virginia. He attended Hamlin High School, where he played basketball and football, receiving his best grades in geometry and typing. He graduated from high school in June 1941.

Yeager had two brothers, Roy and Hal Jr., and two sisters, Doris Ann, accidentally killed at age two by six-year-old Roy playing with a shotgun,  and Pansy Lee. His first experience with the military was as a teen at the Citizens Military Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, during the summers of 1939 and 1940.

Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) on September 12, 1941, and became an aircraft mechanic at George Air Force Base, Victorville, California. At enlistment, Yeager was not eligible for flight training because of his age and educational background, but the entry of the U.S. into World War II less than three months later prompted the USAAF to alter its recruiting standards. Yeager had unusually sharp vision, a visual acuity rated 20/10, which once enabled him to shoot a deer at 550 m.

Yeager remained in the Air Force after the war, becoming a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field, now Edwards Air Force Base, following graduation from Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School (Class 46C).

More information: Space

After Bell Aircraft test pilot Chalmers Slick Goodlin demanded $150,000 (over $1.7 million in 2020 dollars) to break the sound barrier, the USAAF selected Yeager to fly the rocket-powered Bell XS-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight.

Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 13,700 m over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. The success of the mission was not announced to the public until June 1948.

Yeager was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Collier Trophy in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight, and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954. The X-1 he flew that day was later put on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

On October 14, 2012, on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager did it again at the age of 89, flying as co-pilot in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain David Vincent out of Nellis Air Force Base.

More information: Los Angeles Time

If you can walk away from a landing,
it's a good landing.
If you use the airplane the next day,
it's an outstanding landing.

Chuck Yeager