RIP Chuck Yeager
Discussion
97, quite an amazing age given the career scrapes he got into!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager
Whilst he's known for the WW2 and sound barrier stuff, I didn't realise he was also active in Korea and Vietnam, and still occasionally flying hot combat jets well into his old age!
Truly, the right stuff
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager
Whilst he's known for the WW2 and sound barrier stuff, I didn't realise he was also active in Korea and Vietnam, and still occasionally flying hot combat jets well into his old age!
Truly, the right stuff
Eric Mc said:
Something I've been expecting for a while - sad to see it eventually happen.
As well as his test flying exploits and combat record - he also headed up the first USAF school for training military astronauts, although he himself was ineligible to apply to be a NASA astronaut.
Why was he ineligible Eric?As well as his test flying exploits and combat record - he also headed up the first USAF school for training military astronauts, although he himself was ineligible to apply to be a NASA astronaut.
Blue62 said:
Eric Mc said:
Something I've been expecting for a while - sad to see it eventually happen.
As well as his test flying exploits and combat record - he also headed up the first USAF school for training military astronauts, although he himself was ineligible to apply to be a NASA astronaut.
Why was he ineligible Eric?As well as his test flying exploits and combat record - he also headed up the first USAF school for training military astronauts, although he himself was ineligible to apply to be a NASA astronaut.
Yeager didn't have any education beyond high school graduation so he failed the "degree" test.
Eric Mc said:
Blue62 said:
Eric Mc said:
Something I've been expecting for a while - sad to see it eventually happen.
As well as his test flying exploits and combat record - he also headed up the first USAF school for training military astronauts, although he himself was ineligible to apply to be a NASA astronaut.
Why was he ineligible Eric?As well as his test flying exploits and combat record - he also headed up the first USAF school for training military astronauts, although he himself was ineligible to apply to be a NASA astronaut.
Yeager didn't have any education beyond high school graduation so he failed the "degree" test.
This is an interesting snippet from the Telegraph obituary that relates to the above conversation :-
Daily Telegraph said:
Yeager was passed over for the burgeoning US space programme because he never went to college but he was hardly heartbroken not to become an astronaut. He considered them mere passengers "throwing the right switches on instructions from the ground."
As ever, the press puts a very simplistic view on the story. Yeager sometimes disparaged the NASA astronauts but if he had been eligible, he would have applied in a flash.
As it was, the USAF hoped to establish its own corps of astronauts and set up an astronaut school at Edwards Air Force Base, putting Yeager in charge. In the end, none of the Air Force manned space programmes came to pass (enhanced X-15, Boeing X-210 Dyna-Soar, Manned Orbiting Laboratory - MOL).
Those military astronauts who were left stranded by the cancellation of these programmes either went back to more normal Air Force (or Navy) duties or hung on and eventually got assigned to the upcoming Space Shuttle programme (Bob Crippen being one of them). By then Yeager was no longer on active duty - although he continued to fly as part of the USAF Reserve into the 1980s.
As it was, the USAF hoped to establish its own corps of astronauts and set up an astronaut school at Edwards Air Force Base, putting Yeager in charge. In the end, none of the Air Force manned space programmes came to pass (enhanced X-15, Boeing X-210 Dyna-Soar, Manned Orbiting Laboratory - MOL).
Those military astronauts who were left stranded by the cancellation of these programmes either went back to more normal Air Force (or Navy) duties or hung on and eventually got assigned to the upcoming Space Shuttle programme (Bob Crippen being one of them). By then Yeager was no longer on active duty - although he continued to fly as part of the USAF Reserve into the 1980s.
Esceptico said:
Falls into the category of didn’t know he was still alive.
When you have to listen to news about
s like Trump and all his enablers it is really good to be reminded that the US does produce some proper heroes too.
Well said. Exactly my thoughts upon hearing this, this morning.When you have to listen to news about
s like Trump and all his enablers it is really good to be reminded that the US does produce some proper heroes too.I thought he had died decades ago - amazing man.
He features in a number of good books, most famously, "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe. However, I would issue a warning about that book. It is a great read - I've read it many times. But it is not a "history" book in the true sense so to get a fuller picture of what was going on in test flying in the late 1940s and 1950s, I'd recommend reading other books on the topic. Yeager's own biography is one and "Into the Black" (as mentioned) is pretty good too.
I met him in California in 2007 by chance. Had a crowd around him, remarkable guy, unassuming, proud, and still very active in his well into his 80s, still flying some stuff, he told me!
Guys like him are from a generation that gave so much, with such honour and bravery. They are the the like of which we will never see again.
RIP
Guys like him are from a generation that gave so much, with such honour and bravery. They are the the like of which we will never see again.
RIP
I knew he was still flying supersonic at 84. . . then read today that he made his last supersonic flight at the age of 89. I think he was truly unique in aviation. Handling fast jets at any age is special (my fastest ever was a BAC Strikemaster that doesn't even get close to supersonic), but to be doing this at almost 90 years old is amazing.
Some bizarre comments from Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic on radio this morning. He reckoned Chuck Yeager discovered that you had the 'reverse the controls' at supersonic speed (no, that was the trick used by the fictional test pilot in the film Test pilot). Also that a British pilot had exceeded Mach 1 in a dive before Yeager's supersonic flight. Someone did, in an F86, but he wasn't British.
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