Now 94, Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager was born February 13, 1923 and is a retired Major General of the United States Air Force. A noted test pilot, he was the first pilot to travel faster than sound (1947). Originally retiring in 1975 as a Brigadier General, Yeager was promoted to Major General while on the Air Force’s retired list in 2005 for his many military achievements.
His career began in World War II as a private in the United States Army Air Forces. 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) and became a North American P-51 Mustang fighter pilot. After the war he became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 m). Although Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2 in 1953, Yeager shortly thereafter set a new record of Mach 2.44. He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units he then was promoted to brigadier general. Yeager’s flying career spans more than 60 years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, including the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War and
Yeager’s popularity soared in the 1980s.
Video produced in 2007.
