THE 456th FIGHTER INTERCEPTOR SQUADRON

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Charles E. Yeager

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The Official Biography

The United States Air Force


Air Force Flight Test Ccenter, Office Of Public Affair (AFMC),
Edwards AFB, CA 93523-5000
(Current as of March 1993)

 

Brigadier General Charles E. Yeager

 

 Retired Air Force Brigadier General Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager gained fame as the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. This historic flight in the Bell X-1 aircraft took place Oct. 14,1947, at Muroc Dry Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base), Calif.

General Yeager was born Feb. 13, 1923, in Myra, W.V. He attended the Citizens Military Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., in 1939 and 1940, and on Sept. 12, 1941, enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps. He was later accepted for pilot training under the flying sergeant program in July 1942, and received his pilot wings and appointment as a flight officer in March 1943 at Luke Field, Ariz.

After completing basic training at Ellington Field, Texas, he served for two months at Mather Field, Calif., and later at Moffet Field, Calif. On Dec. 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II and General Yeager was transferred to Victorville Air Base (now George Air Force Base), Calif., where he worked on AT-11 aircraft and received promotions to private first class and to corporal.

In July 1942, General Yeager was selected for pilot training and graduated March 10, 1943, from Luke Field, Phoenix, Ariz. He was promoted from corporal to flight officer.

General Yeager's first assignment was as a P-39 pilot with the 363d Fighter Squadron in Tonopah, Nev. As a member of the 363d he trained at various bases in the United States before going overseas to England in November 1943. While in England he flew P-51s in combat against the Germans, shooting down one ME-109 and an HE-111K before being shot down on his eighth combat mission over German-occupied France on March 5, 1944. He evaded capture when elements of the French Maquish helped him to reach the safety of the Spanish border.

Yeager remained in Spain until the summer of 1944 when he was released to the British at Gibraltar and returned to England.

He returned to his squadron and flew 56 more combat missions, shooting down 11 more German aircraft. Between July and October he was promoted from second lieutenant to captain.

Yeager returned to the United States in 1945 to attend the instructor pilot course and subsequently served as an instructor pilot at Perrin Field, Texas. In July 1945 he went to Wright Field, Ohio, and participated in various test projects including the P-80 "Shooting Star" and the P-84 Thunderjet." He also evaluated all of the German and Japanese fighter aircraft brought back to the United States after the war. This assignment led to his subsequent selection as pilot of the nation's first research rocket aircraft, the Bell X-1.

In January 1946 General Yeager attended the test Pilot School at Wright Field, Ohio, and in August 1947 was sent to Muroc Air Base, Calif., as the project officer on the Bell XS-1.

On Oct. 14, 1947, he flew the XS-1 past the sound barrier, becoming the world's first supersonic pilot. During the next two years, he flew the X-1 more than 40 times, exceeding 1,000 mph and 70,000 feet. He was the first American to make a ground takeoff in a rocket-powered aircraft. In December 1953 he flew the Bell X-1A 1,650 mph, becoming the first man to fly two and one-half times the speed of sound.

In 1952 General Yeager attended the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., and two years later returned to Europe to serve as commander, 417th Fighter Squadron, Hahn Air Base, West Germany, and at Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France. During his tour in Europe, he took first-place honors in the 1956 Weapons Gunnery Meet.

In 1957 he returned to the United States and was assigned to the 413th Fighter Wing at George Air Force Base, Calif., and in 1958 became commander of the 1st Fighter Squadron, flying new F-100 "Super Sabres."

General Yeager graduated from the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in June 1961, and, in 1962, became commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School (now the USAF Test Pilot School), where all military astronauts were trained.

On Dec. 10, 1963, while testing an NF-104 rocket-augmented aerospace trainer, he narrowly escaped death when his aircraft went out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashed. He parachuted to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he became the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.

In July 1966 he assumed command of the 405th Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, Republic of the Philippines, and flew 127 missions in South Vietnam.

In February 1968 he assumed command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and deployed with the wing to the Republic of Korea during the USS Pueblo crisis.

In July 1969 he became vice commander, 7th Air Force, at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, and in August was promoted to brigadier general.

In 1971 he assumed duties as the United States defense representative to Pakistan.

In March 1973 General Yeager went to the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center, Norton Air Force Base, Calif., and became director in June 1973.

He retired from active duty in the U.S. Air Force on March 1, 1975.

His military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster, Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal with "V" device, Purple Heart, Air Medal with 10 oak leaf clusters, the Air Force Commendation Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with one oak leaf cluster and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award.

His civilian awards include the MacKay Trophy, Federation Aeronautique International Gold Medal Award, the Collier Trophy and the Harmon Trophy. He was selected one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1953, elected to the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973, presented the Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement in 1974 and the Horatio Alger Award in 1986, awarded a peacetime Congressional Medal of Honor by the Congress of the United States (presented by President Gerald Ford in 1976), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in May 1985.

General Yeager's professional military education includes Air Command and Staff College in 1952 and the Air War College in 1961. He was awarded honorary doctor of science degrees from West Virginia University in 1948, From Marshall University of Huntington, W.V., in 1969, from Salem College in 1974, and from the University of Charleston in 1983.

General Yeager has flown 201 types of military aircraft and has more than 14,000 flying hours, with more than 13,000 of these in fighter aircraft. He has most recently flown the SR-71, F-15, F-16, F-18 and the F-20 Tigershark.

He married the former Glennis Faye Dickhouse of Grass Valley, Calif. Mrs. Yeager passed away December 1990. He has two sons, Donald and Michael; and two daughters, Sharon and Susan.

General Yeager remains an active aviation enthusiast, acting as advisor for various films, programs and documentaries on aviation. He currency serves on the Boards of Directors of Louisiana Pacific Corp., the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the National Commission on Space and the commission to investigate the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986. He is a consultant test pilot for the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base.

He has published two books entitled, "Yeager" and "Press On: Further Adventures in the Good Life."

 

 

Chuck Yeager

 

For many people, Chuck Yeager is a true hero in the strictest definition of the word. Throughout his career, Yeager displayed distinguished courage and performed several extraordinarily brave deeds, although he only considered such acts as following his duty. Many people recognize Yeager as the first person to break the sound barrier, but that feat is only one of his many important achievements. Without a doubt, Yeager is the world's most famous test pilot not only because of the records he set, but also because of his determination, his ability to remain calm in difficult situations, and his ability to quickly analyze problems and find a solution. He is one of the "toughest" pilots, both mentally and physically, in aviation history, and few have ever matched his piloting skills.

Charles "Chuck" E. Yeager was born on February 13, 1923, in Myra, West Virginia. The son of a gas driller, Chuck grew up working with a wide variety of mechanical devices. He could readily take apart an engine and put it back together without difficulty. A few months after his high school graduation, Yeager joined the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Yeager had no real interest in learning to fly when he first joined the Air Forces. He simply wanted to be a mechanic. The main reason he enlisted in the Army was because the Army recruiter was more persuasive than the Navy spokesperson. Furthermore, unlike many famous aviators, Chuck's first encounter with an airplane had left him unimpressed. When Yeager was a teenager, a plane made an emergency landing near his house. Although Chuck dashed over to look at the aircraft, he was unmoved by the experience.

When Yeager entered the Army Air Forces, he seemed unlikely to become one of history's legendary pilots. But, in the summer of 1942, he began showing an interest in becoming an aviator, thanks to the Air Forces "Flying Sergeant Program," which trained enlisted men to fly. Yeager enrolled in the program because he wanted a change of pace, not to mention a promotion and a pay raise.

Yeager earned his wings in early 1943. After a brief assignment stateside, he transferred to England and began working with the 363rd Fighter Squadron. In early 1944, on his seventh mission, Yeager shot down his first enemy plane. However, his next sortie did not go as well.

On March 5, 1944, his eighth mission, Yeager had to bail out over occupied France after his plane took an enemy hit. Despite being wounded, Yeager still evaded the Germans, with the help of the French Resistance, and made it into neutral Spain. Soon after, he returned to England. Although military rules prohibited him from returning to his unit, he appealed his case all the way up to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who allowed him to return to his squadron.

If Eisenhower had any doubts about his decision, Yeager quickly put them to rest. After returning to his unit, Yeager shot down five enemy planes in a single day and became an "ace-in-a-day." Later, he even downed a German Messerschmitt Me-262 jet while flying his propeller-driven P-51 Mustang. Throughout his 64 World War II missions, Yeager scored a total of 11-1/2 victories. (Pilots were credited with a "half" victory if pilots from two planes both hit an enemy aircraft.)

In July 1945, Yeager entered a new phase of his aviation career when he became a maintenance officer at Wright Field, Ohio, a job that entailed flight-testing all of the field's different planes. Due to his growing experience with a wide variety of aircraft, and his outstanding piloting skills, Yeager caught the attention of Colonel Albert Boyd, the man in charge of the Air Force's aircraft testing program. Boyd invited Yeager to become a test pilot, and the West Virginian accepted the offer.

In August 1947, Yeager transferred to Muroc Air Base, California (which would later become Edwards Air Force Base), the premier proving ground for the day's most technologically advanced aircraft. Soon after arriving at Muroc, Yeager received orders to test the X-1, an experimental aircraft that some believed might exceed Mach One. On October 14, Yeager flew the X-1, which he had renamed the Glamorous Glennis in honor of his wife, faster than the speed of sound. With that flight, he traveled faster than any human being ever had, a remarkable feat considering the fact that he had broken several ribs during a horseback riding accident only a few days before. Revealing his characteristic sense of humor, Yeager radioed to one of colleagues: "I'm still wearing my ears and nothing else fell off, neither."

Yeager's next noteworthy flight occurred in 1953 while he was checking out the X1-A, a longer and more powerful version of the X-1. On December 12, Yeager piloted the X1-A to Mach 2.4, another record, although a short-lived one. Even though most of the flight went according to plan, near the end, the aircraft unexpectedly started spinning out of control and began rotating on all three axes. In the process, Yeager smashed his head on the cockpit's canopy. After spinning for more than 50 seconds, Yeager finally regained control of the aircraft and landed it safely, a fine example of his outstanding piloting skills.

In 1954, Yeager left Edwards and accepted a series of command positions. His first stop was West Germany where he headed the 417th Fighter Squadron. Three years later, he returned to California as the commander of the 1st Fighter Squadron. After graduating from the Air War College in June 1961, he received a promotion to full colonel. The following summer he returned to Edwards to head the new Aerospace Research Pilot School, an institution that trained several of the Apollo and Space Shuttle astronauts. And notably, during this period, Yeager continued to help Jackie Cochran, the well known female flyer, learn the intricacies of various jets and support her quest to better several speed records, a mission he had begun in the early 1950s.

Despite his workload as the commander of the Aerospace Research Pilot School, Yeager continued to test most of the experimental planes that came through Edwards. Although many of his flights went according to plan, one mission quite literally blew up in his face. In December 1963, Yeager was testing a Lockheed Starfighter F-104 when it unexpectedly spun out of control at well over 100,000 feet (30,480 meters). Although Yeager fought to regain control, he could not and had to eject at about 8,500 feet (2,591 meters). While ejecting, his pilot's seat smashed into his helmet, tore open his visor, and the flame from his seat's ejector rocket severely burned him. Although Yeager parachuted to safety, he required several skin grafts. The incident undoubtedly helped bolster his tough and determined reputation.

Yeager returned to military combat in July 1966 when he assumed command of the 405th Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, which fought in the Vietnam War. During the conflict, Yeager flew a total of 127 combat missions.

In February 1968, Yeager entered the final phase of his military career when he began commanding the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing. The following year, he received a promotion to brigadier general and became the vice commander of the 17th Air Force. Yeager had become one of only a handful of men who had started as an enlisted man and risen all the way to the rank of an Air Force general.

Yeager formally retired from the Air Force in March 1975. During the 1970s and 1980s, he received a string of honors. In 1976, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his first supersonic flight. Then, in 1985, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. These two medals are the highest honors an individual can receive for outstanding service and achievement. Yeager also obtained several other prestigious awards during his career, including the 1948 Collier Trophy, and the 1958 Harmon International Trophy, as well as numerous military citations.

On October 14, 1997, the 50th anniversary of Yeager's first Mach One flight, Yeager broke the sound barrier once again, this time in an F-15. That flight was his last official flight in an Air Force plane.

Yeager traveled a long and challenging path from his West Virginia beginnings to becoming one of the world's most famous aviators. For many people, he exemplifies the true meaning of the word "hero," not only as a record setter and pioneering test pilot, but also as a military aviator.

--David H. Onkst

Sources

Hallion, Richard P. Designers and Test Pilots. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1983.

_____________. Supersonic Flight: Breaking the Sound Barrier and Beyond. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's , 1997.

______________. Test Pilots: The Frontiersmen of Flight. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.

Janos, Leo and Chuck Yeager. Yeager: An Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.

Lundgren, William R. Across the High Frontier: The Story of A Test Pilot--Major Charles E. Yeager, USAF. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1955.

Rotundo, Louis c. Into the Unknown: The X-1 Story. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

Yeager, Chuck and Leerhsen, Charles. Press On: Further Adventures in the Good Life. New York, Bantam Books, 1988.

Yeager, Chuck, et al. The Quest for Mach One: A First Person Account of Breaking the Sound Barrier. New York: Penguin Studio, 1997.

Young, James O. Meeting the Challenge of Supersonic Flight. Edwards Air Force Base, Cal.: Air Force Flight Test Center History Office, 1997.

"Brigadier General Chuck Yeager: Official Biography," Edwards Air Force Base, http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/people/yeager_biography.html

"Chuck Yeager," on the Ace Pilots website. http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_yeager.html

"Chuck Yeager," http://www.chuckyeager.org

"Chuck Yeager," http://www.members.tripod.com/derekhorne/main.html

"Chuck Yeager and the Bell X-1." http://www.Nationalgeographic.com/sound/banner.html

"General Chuck Yeager Interview," Achievement Organization. http://www.Achievement.org/autodoc/page/yea0int-1

Centennial Of Flight

 

 

Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager

 

 

Major General Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born on February 13, 1923, in Lincoln County, West Virginia) was a general officer in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot.

His career began in World War II as a U.S. Army Air Force P-51 fighter pilot, and after the war, he remained in the Air Force and became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. He is considered a living legend of aviation, for he became the first pilot to travel faster than sound Mach 1 in level and ascent. Though Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4.Yeager, Chuck and Janos, Leo. Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 226 (paperback). New York: Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN 0-553-25674-2. He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, then was promoted to Brigadier General. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Biography

Yeager was born to farming parents Susie Mae and Albert Hal Yeager in Myra, West Virginia and graduated from high school in Hamlin, West Virginia. Yeager had two brothers, Roy and Hal, Jr., and two sisters, Doris Ann (accidentally killed by Roy with a shotgun while still an infant)Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 6 (paperback). and Pansy Lee. His first association with the military was as a participant in the Citizens Military Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, during both the summers of 1939 and 1940. On February 26, 1945, Yeager married Glennis Dickhouse, and the couple had four children. Glennis Yeager died in 1990.

Chuck Yeager is not related to Jeana Yeager, one of the two pilots of the globe-circling Voyager aircraft. The name "Yeager" is an Anglicized form of the German and Dutch name, Jäger, and so is common among immigrants of those communities.

 

Air Force career

World War II

Yeager enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) on September 12, 1941, and became an aircraft mechanic at Victorville Army Air Field, California. He was selected for flight training as a flying sergeant in July 1942, and quickly exhibited an outstanding natural talent as a pilot, receiving his wings and a promotion to Flight Officer at Luke Field, Arizona, on March 10, 1943. Assigned to the 357th Fighter Group at Tonopah, Nevada, he initially trained as a fighter pilot flying P-39 Airacobras and went overseas with the group on November 23, 1943.

Stationed in the United Kingdom at RAF Leiston, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat (he named his aircraft Glamorous Glen after his girlfriend, Glennis Faye Dickhouse, who became his wife in February 1945) with the 363rd Fighter Squadron. He had gained one victory before he was shot down over France on his eighth mission, on March 5, 1944.
 

He escaped to Spain on March 30 with the help of the Maquis (French Resistance) and returned to England on May 15, 1944. During his stay with the Maquis, Yeager assisted the guerrilla group in duties that did not involve direct combat, though he did help to construct bombs for the group, a skill which he had learned from his father.Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 45 (paperback). He was awarded the Bronze Star for helping another airman (who was missing part of his leg) across the Pyrenees.

Despite a regulation that "evaders" (escaped pilots) could not fly over enemy territory again to avoid compromising Resistance allies, Yeager was reinstated to flying combat. Yeager had joined a bomber pilot evader, Capt. Fred Glover, in speaking directly to the Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on June 12, 1944. With Glover pleading their case, arguing that because the Allies had invaded France, the Maquis resistance movement was by then openly fighting the Nazis alongside, so there was little or nothing they could reveal if shot down again to expose those who had helped them evade capture. Eisenhower, after gaining permission from the War Department to decide the requests, concurred with Yeager and Glover. Yeager later credited his postwar success in the Air Force to this decision, saying that his test pilot career followed naturally from being a decorated combat ace with a good kill record, along with being an airplane maintenance man prior to attending pilot school. In part because of his maintenance background, Yeager frequently served in his flying units as a "maintenance officer", the liaison between pilots and mechanics.

Yeager possessed outstanding eyesight (rated as 20/10, once enabling him to shoot a deer at 600 yardsYeager: An Autobiography. Page 297 (paperback).), flying skills, and combat leadership; he distinguished himself by becoming the first pilot in his group to make "ace in a day": he shot down five enemy aircraft in one mission, finishing the war with 11.5 official victories, including one of the first air-to-air victories over a jet fighter (a German Me-262). Two of his "ace in a day" kills were scored without firing a single shot; he flew into firing position against an Me-109 and the pilot of the aircraft panicked, breaking to starboard and colliding with his wingman; Yeager later reported both pilots bailed out. An additional victory which was not officially counted for him came during the period before his combat status was reinstated: during a training flight in his P-51 over the North Sea, he happened on a German Ju-88 attacking a downed B-17 Flying Fortress crew. Yeager's quick thinking and reflexes saved the B-17 crew, but because he was not yet cleared for flying combat again, his gun camera film and credit for the kill were given to his wingman, Eddie Simpson (Yeager later mistakenly recalled that the credit had given Simpson his fifth kill).

Yeager, after being turned down three times by a promotion board because of a court-martial on his enlisted record, was commissioned a second lieutenant while at Leiston and was promoted to captain before the end of his tour. He flew his sixty-first and final mission on January 15, 1945, and returned to the United States in early February. As an evader, he received his choice of assignments and because his new wife was pregnant, chose Wright Field to be near his home in West Virginia. His high flight hours and maintenance experience qualified him to become a functional test pilot of repaired aircraft, which brought him under the command of Colonel Albert Boyd, head of the Aeronautical Systems Flight Test Division.Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 60 (paperback).

Post-War

Yeager remained in the Air Force after the war, becoming a test pilot at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base) and eventually being selected to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight. Such was the difficulty in this task that the answer to many of the inherent challenges were along the lines of "Yeager better have paid-up insurance."Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 157 (paperback). Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet (13,700 m). Two nights before the scheduled date for the flight, he broke two ribs while riding a horse. He was so afraid of being removed from the mission that he went to a veterinarian in a nearby town for treatment and told only his friend and fellow project pilot Jack Ridley about it.

On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not seal the airplane's hatch by himself. Ridley rigged up a device (really just the end of a broom handle, used as an extra lever) to allow Yeager to seal the hatch of the airplane. Yeager's flight recorded Mach 1.06. However, Yeager was always quick to point out that the public paid attention to whole numbers and that the next milestone would be exceeding Mach 2.Yeager's X-1 is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Yeager was awarded the MacKay and Collier Trophies in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight, and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954.

Some aviation historians contend that American pilot George Welch broke the sound barrier while diving an XP-86 Sabre two weeks before Yeager, and again just 30 minutes before. In a period documentary, the USAF said that Yeager and the X-1 were the first to break the sound barrier "in level flight" (the X-1 was actually climbing when it broke the sound barrier, which is more difficult), which may imply acknowledgement that Welch had broken the sound barrier in a dive before Yeager broke it in the X-1. The F-86 was not, however, capable of flying supersonically without the assistance of gravity and was not, and is not, considered to be a supersonic aircraft because of that fact.

There was also a disputed claim by German pilot Hans Guido Mutke that he was the first person to break the sound barrier, on April 9, 1945, in a Messerschmitt Me.262. Postwar testing, however, determined that the Me-262 would go out of control and break apart well short of Mach 1.


He later went on to break many other speed and altitude records. He also was one of the first American pilots to fly a MiG-15 'Fagot' after its pilot defected to South Korea with it. During the latter half of 1953, Yeager was involved with the USAF team that was working on the X-1A, an aircraft designed to surpass Mach 2 in level flight. That year, he flew a chase plane for the female civilian pilot Jackie Cochran, a close friend, as she became the first woman to fly faster than sound. However, on November 20, 1953, the NACA's D-558-II Skyrocket and its pilot, Scott Crossfield, became the first team to reach twice the speed of sound. After they were bested, Ridley and Yeager decided to beat rival Crossfield's speed record in a flight series that they dubbed "Operation NACA Weep." Not only did they beat Crossfield, but they did it in time to spoil a celebration planned for the 50th anniversary of flight in which Crossfield was to be called "the fastest man alive." The Ridley/Yeager USAF team achieved Mach 2.44 on December 12, 1953.

Yeager was foremost a fighter pilot and held several squadron and wing commands. From May 1955 to July 1957 he commanded the F-86H Sabre-equipped 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (50th Fighter-Bomber Wing) at Hahn AB, Germany, and Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France; and from 1957 to 1960 the F-100D-equipped 1st Fighter Day Squadron (later, while still under Yeager's command, re-designated the 306th Tactical Fighter Squadron) at George Air Force Base, California, and Morón Air Base, Spain.

In 1962, after completion of a year's studies at the Air War College, he was the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, which produced astronauts for NASA and the USAF, after its redesignation from the USAF Flight Test Pilot School. It was a flying accident during a test flight in one of the school's NF-104s that put an end to his record attempts. Between December 1963 and January 1964, The Crash of Chuck Yeager's NF-104A, December 10 1963 Yeager completed five flights in the NASA M2-F1 lifting body.

In 1966 he took command of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, the Philippines, whose squadrons were deployed on rotational temporary duty (TDY) in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. There he accrued another 414 hours of combat time in 127 missions, mostly in a Martin B-57 light bomber. In February 1968, he was assigned command of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, and led the F-4 Phantom wing in South Korea during the Pueblo crisis.

On June 22, 1969, he was promoted to Brigadier General, and was assigned in July as the vice-commander of the Seventeenth Air Force. In 1971, Yeager was assigned to Pakistan to advise the Pakistan Air Force at the behest of then-Ambassador Joe Farland.Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 391 (paperback).

Merits

General Yeager's awards and decorations include:

 

Post-retirement history

On March 1, 1975, following assignments in Germany and Pakistan, he retired from the Air Force at Norton Air Force Base, but still occasionally flew for the USAF and NASA as a consulting test pilot at Edwards AFB. He also worked as a pitchman for AC-Delco. For his consultant work to the Test Pilot School Commander at Edwards Air Force Base, Yeager is paid one dollar annually, along with all the flying time he wants. The $1 allows him to be covered by workers compensation.

For several years, Yeager was the public face of AC Delco, the automotive parts division of General Motors. Because of this, AC Delco experienced a sales surge. Yeager: An Autobiography. Page 418 (paperback).

Through the years, Yeager delivered a number of aviation and test pilot related speeches to a variety of groups ranging from test pilots, Air Force Association banquets, Civil Air Patrol, Experimental Aircraft Association, and even the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) National Meeting entitled "Breaking Barriers" in Honolulu in October 1995. Yeager easily adapted his talk to a given audience on the importance of stabilators and their role in giving America air combat supremacy. In 1990, Yeager was included with the first class of inductees into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.

In the late 80s and early 90s, Yeager set a number of light, general aircraft performance records for speed, range, and endurance. Most notable were flights conducted on behalf of Piper Aircraft. On one such flight, Yeager did an emergency landing as a result of fuel exhaustion.

On October 14, 1997, on the 50th anniversary of his historic flight past Mach 1, he flew a new Glamorous Glennis III, an F-15D Eagle, past Mach 1, with Lt. Col. Troy Fontaine as co-pilot. The chase plane for the flight was an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Bob Hoover, a famous air-show pilot, and his wingman for the first supersonic flight. Had Yeager gone to the flight surgeon with his broken ribs before the X-1 flight, he would have been grounded and Hoover would have flown the supersonic flight test, with Bud Anderson flying chase. This was Yeager's last official flight with the Air Force. At the end of his speech to the crowd he concluded, "All that I am...I owe to the Air Force." In 2004, Congress voted to authorize the President to promote Brig. Gen Yeager to the rank of Major General on the retired list. In 2005, President Bush granted the promotion of both Yeager and (posthumously) air-power pioneer Billy Mitchell to Major General. Few Presidents have authorized retirement promotions: Mitchell was first posthumously reinstated as a brigadier general by President Eisenhower, and Academy Award winning actor/Air Force Reservist Jimmy Stewart was promoted in retirement from Brigadier General to Major General by President Ronald Reagan.


Yeager, who never attended college and was often modest about his background, is considered by some to be one of the greatest pilots of all time. Despite his lack of higher education, he has been honored in his home state. Marshall University has named its highest academic scholarship, the Society of Yeager Scholars, in his honor. Additionally, Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named after him. The Interstate 77 bridge over the Kanawha River in Charleston is named for Yeager. He was the chairman of Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagle Program.

The state of West Virginia honored Yeager with a marker along Corridor G (part of U.S. 119) in his home Lincoln County on October 19 2006, as well as renamed part of the highway the Yeager Highway.

He is now fully retired from military test flight, after having maintained that status for three decades after his official retirement from the Air Force. Yeager served on the presidential commission that investigated the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on STS-51-L. The Sacramento ABC affiliate sent a crew to Yeager's home, a few miles northeast of the city, following the Challenger disaster that was aired on Nightline. Yeager provided a voice of calm, confidence, and understanding during the interview. Most notable was his quote: "They (NASA) have all the telemetry data available to understand what happened, and it will be just a matter of time to analyze it". Yeager did admit that there is a risk in any aeronautical flight test of which the Space Shuttle fits, that crews accept that risk, and these same crews understand the consequences of that risk better than anyone else. But they believe in what they are doing and would not do any other type of work.

In August 2003, nearly 13 years after Glennis Yeager's death, he married actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo, 36 years his junior. The Right Stuff at war, The Age, August 31 2004 Three of his children are currently suing for control of his holdings, claiming that D'Angelo married Yeager for his fortune. Yeager contends they simply want more money. 

 

On April 22, 2006, the Associated Press reported that daughter Susan Yeager has been ordered to pay her father nearly $1 million for violating her duties as his trustee. According to the report, a Nevada County Superior Court referee had ruled that Susan Yeager improperly profited when she had her father's trust buy her out of property that the two co-owned in Northern California near Nevada City. The decision signed by a judge in late March 2006 found Susan Yeager, currently living in Hawaii, could keep a family condominium Yeager had deeded first to her, and then to his new wife. But Susan Yeager was ordered to reimburse the retired general's trust more than $900,000 in profits and back taxes incurred in the land sale, as well as an estimated $38,000 in court costs.

Yeager now resides in the Penn Valley area of Grass Valley, California.

 

The Right Stuff

Yeager was a primary subject of Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff, and of the movie made from it, in which he is played by Sam Shepard. He has a short cameo in a scene as bartender whoas an in-joke because NASA didn't recruit him as an astronaut because he lacked a college education wants to serve the NASA recruiters some whiskey and is puzzled when they only want a Coke. He was the prototype flier with the "right stuff", although Yeager denied any such attribute, saying it was just a combination of "luck" and "knowing the airplane" (in his autobiography, Yeager concedes that he does believe in the concept of "the right stuff"). Romantic as his character appears to be, his portrayal in the movie is somewhat skewed; Yeager was actually partially responsible for the design of the X-1. In addition, he did not take the modified F-104 Starfighter without authorization, as seen in the motion picture; he simply did not have authorization to attempt to break the Russian record. He did, however, receive 3rd-degree burns on his head and hands from the rocket nozzle of the ejection seat. Yeager, on a referral, helped Wolfe on technical aspects of aviation for the book, The Right Stuff.

References

  • Hallion, Richard P. Designers and Test Pilots. New York: Time-Life Books, 1982. ISBN 0-8094-3316-8.
  • Wolfe, Tom. The Right Stuff. New York: Bantam Books, 1980. ISBN 0-553-13828-6.
  • Yeager, Chuck and Leerhsen, Charles. Press on! Further Adventures in the Good Life. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. ISBN 0-553-05333-7.
  • Yeager, Chuck and Janos, Leo. Yeager: An Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN 0-553-25674-2.

 

 

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