Inside Stories CHUCK YEAGER Supersonic Legend Chuck Yeager, wartime fi ghter pilot and the fi rst aviator to break the sound barrier, died in December 2020. Kathleen Hanser explores his fascinating career ABOVE Yeager in the harles E ‘Chuck’ Yeager will southern drawl that confounded unmatched; its importance became cockpit of a Lockheed always be remembered people for the rest of his life. a mantra of Yeager’s throughout his NF-104A Starfi ghter as the first man to exceed In September 1941, the then life… “The better you understand at Edwards AFB on C Mach 1 – and as one of the pilots 18-year-old Yeager enlisted in the them, the better off you are in case December 4, 1963. It is possible the airframe immortalised for having the ‘right US Army Air Forces and became an emergency arises” he told the is 56-0762 – the very stuff’. In fact, according to author a mechanic. Although he was sick American Academy of Achievement machine from which Tom Wolfe who coined the phrase, to his stomach during his first in 1991. He also possessed he was forced to eject Yeager was “the most righteous of aeroplane flight, it did not deter outstanding eyesight, which he less than a week later all the possessors of the right stuff”. him from changing his mind about used later to spot enemy aircraft while attempting an altitude record attempt Yeager was born on February 13, becoming a pilot and applying for up to 50 miles away. He loved USAF 1923, in West Virginia and grew up the Flying Sergeant programme performing aerobatics and became in Hamlin, a tiny town in one of the in July 1942. Decades later, when known for challenging his fellow poorest areas of the US state. Yeager was asked on Twitter what trainees to mock dogfights. But The young Yeager acquired a keen made him want to become a pilot, perhaps Yeager’s most important understanding of machinery from he said: “I was in maintenance, saw trait was his remarkable coolness his father. Chuck wasn’t one of pilots had beautiful girls on their under pressure. those young lads of the period who arms [and] didn’t have dirty hands, dreamt of being a flyboy; his life so I applied.” Born dogfi ghter revolved around the outdoors. During training, it was Yeager’s instructor recognised As early as the age of six, he was obvious Yeager was blessed with him as the best flyer in the group shooting squirrels and rabbits with exceptional co-ordination, which and recommended to him that a .22 rifle and skinning them for his he said gave him “less trouble than he become a fighter pilot, and he mother to cook for dinner. most handling a stick and rudder”. began training in tactics in the He loved his life as a country boy, His aptitude for understanding Bell P-39 Airacobra. He received although he possessed a strong an aeroplane’s systems was his pilot wings in March 1943 and 108 FlyPast March 2021 became a non-commissioned second lieutenant on arrival at his new assignment with the 357th Fighter Group at Leiston, Suffolk, UK. There, he began flying P-51 Mustangs against Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Focke- Wulf Fw 190s. He scored his first victory over Berlin on March 4, 1944, but the next day he was cornered and shot down by three German fighters. Yeager described his ordeal in a report afterwards: “Three Fw 190s came in from the rear and cut my elevator cables. I snap-rolled with the rudder and jumped at 18,000ft. An Fw 190 dove at me, but when he was about 2,000 yards from me a P-51 came in on his tail and blew him to pieces.” After parachuting into occupied France, he hid in the woods BELOW The third and tended to his wounds. The Mustang to carry the French Resistance helped him to ‘Glamorous Glen’ the Pyrenees mountains, and he name was the best- climbed over the snowy peaks to known of the three. It was a P-51D-15-NA neutral Spain, carrying a wounded Mustang, 44-14888/ flyer with him. By March 28, 1944 B6-Y, branded he was free. After his injuries ‘Glamorous Glen III’. healed, he returned to England, ‘fat Yeager is seen here and tan’, where he began fighting (centre) with ground personnel beside the the regulation stating that those aircraft MALCOLM V LOWE who evaded capture must return COLLECTION March 2021 FlyPast 109 Inside Stories CHUCK YEAGER said Yeager flew an aircraft "as Bell X-1 specifi cations though he was an integral part of First flight January 19, 1946 it; his 'feel' for a new aeroplane was Engine 1 x Reaction Motors E6000-C4 liquid fuel rocket, instinctive, intuitive and as natural 6,000lb thrust as if he had already flown it for a Empty weight 8,100lb (3,674kg) hundred or more hours". Max take-off weight 13,400lb (6,078kg) In July 1945, Yeager was assigned Max speed 957mph (1,540km) as a maintenance officer in the Initial record-breaking speed 700mph, Mach 1.06 Flight Test Division at Wright Field, Wingspan 28ft (8m) Ohio, which meant he would test fly Length 31ft (9m) all its aeroplanes. Yeager selected Height 11ft (3m) Wright Field for no other reason than it was close to Hamlin, where Ceiling 72,000ft (22,000m) a then pregnant Glennis was living home [to the US]. “I knew that this By the conflict’s end, Yeager had with his parents. It turned out to be was where I belonged until I had completed 64 combat missions and a choice that set him on a course done my share of the fighting,” downed 13 enemy aircraft. with history. he wrote. After arguing his case At that time, there was fierce BELOW The fi rst Mustang up the chain of command to no Test pilot competition to be the first to build assigned to Yeager avail, he wangled a meeting with Yeager returned to the US in a manned aircraft that could fly after joining the 357th Gen Dwight D Eisenhower, who February 1945 and was assigned beyond the so-called sound barrier, FG was P-51B-5-NA rescinded Yeager’s travel orders. briefly to Perrin Field, Texas, or Mach 1. The National Advisory 43-6763/B6-Y, named ‘Glamorus Glen’ Once back with his unit, Yeager as a basic flight instructor. On Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), after his future wife. bemoaned the fact that he had his way to Texas, he diverted to forerunner to today's NASA, and Note the misspelling just one ‘kill’ under his belt. This West Virginia to marry Glennis the US Army Air Forces placed ‘Glamorus’. He was was soon rectified in dramatic Dickhouse, whom he had been their hopes on the Bell-X1, a small, shot down in this fashion on October 12, 1944 when dating before the war. His superb orange, rocket-powered aircraft aircraft during March 1944 MALCOLM V LOWE he was leading three fighter flying skills were noticed by Col that was launched from the COLLECTION squadrons escorting bombers over Albert Boyd, chief of flight testing, bottom of a Boeing B-29 at nearly and his deputy, Col 30,000ft. The X-1 was bullet-shaped Fred Ascani, who to withstand shock waves and Bremen, Germany. Yeager downed five Bf 109s during the mission, making him an ace-in-a-day and he received a Silver Star for his actions. In late 1944, high-speed enemy jet fighters had appeared in the skies. The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe, for instance, was 100mph faster than the P-51. On November 6, Yeager spotted RIGHT Following his an Me 262 heading in for a landing evasion and return at about 200mph. He dived his for a second tour with Mustang through dense flak at the 357th FG, Yeager 500mph and destroyed the jet was assigned a P-51D- 5-NA Mustang, 44- with machine gun fire, earning the 13897/B6-Y, which he Distinguished Flying Cross. christened ‘Glamorous Later that month, Yeager became Glenn II’. Note the a double ace with 11 kills by di erent spelling of shooting down four German ‘Glen’ compared with his fi rst and third Fw 190s during what some have Mustangs MALCOLM V described as the greatest single LOWE COLLECTION American victory of the air war. 110 FlyPast March 2021 featured a Reaction Motors 6,000lb LEFT Yeager (left) thrust rocket engine. and ‘Jack’ Ridley In August 1947, Yeager was pose with the X-1 ‘Glamorous Glennis’ transferred to Muroc Army Air in place beneath the Base, California (later called B-29 Superfortress Edwards Air Force Base), where an mothership sometime abundance of daring flying ‘jocks’ in 1947 USAF tested the most technologically advanced aircraft. Yeager became the test pilot for the Bell X-1, which he named “...it was obvious Yeager was blessed with exceptional co-ordination” “He regularly exceeded the sound LEFT This well-known photo of Chuck Yeager barrier and reached in the X-1 shows the tight confi nes of the speeds of 960mph” type’s cockpit. Like his wartime Mustangs, Glamorous Glennis after his wife. Yeager named the machine ‘Glamorous His team consisted of his good Glennis’ after his wife friend Bob Hoover as back-up/ USAF chase pilot and Jack Ridley as project engineer. Up to this point, civilian test pilots had been putting the X-1 through its paces, but when Chalmers ‘Slick’ Goodlin demanded US$150,000 to perform the ultimate task, NACA and the army air forces switched to using military aviators.