The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: billt on December 08, 2020, 02:00:47 AM
-
https://www.foxnews.com/us/chuck-yeager-the-first-man-to-break-the-sound-barrier-dead-at-97
What's even sadder is most young people don't even know who he is, or what he accomplished. Along with the remaining 4 men who walked on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott, Charles Duke, and Harrison Schmitt. Pretty soon all of these guys will be gone.
-
May you rest in peace General Yeager.
It is somehow fitting that he passed on December 7. It is a day that defined his generation and from their sacrifices secured our safety and blessings we yet enjoy.
-
Must have been Covid, he was only 97.
-
I believe, so the story goes, the civilian test pilot was holding out for more money, so Chuck got to be the first super-sonic. While he probably knew there would be fame and glory, mostly, I think, he did it from a sense of duty, honor and adventure.
Ran across him twice. 1st was Edwards during the C5 testing. We had a number of celebrities visit the C5, but since it flew all day, literally airborne from 8am til 5pm with an engine running crew change at noon, visits were generally at night. I worked the night shift recovering the a/c and prepping them for the next days flights. Chuck was one of the visitors. And as with most pilots they wanted to know about the flying characteristics. I generally got to discuss the avionics with the visitors. With Chuck however several pilots had hung around. I stood in the back of the cockpit and did get to handle one or two questions about the auto-pilot and power steering systems.
2nd time was at the NRA Annual meeting in Orlando a while back. Didn't get to meet with him, but thoroughly enjoyed his speech. He started by saying they told him to talk about hunting and fishing, but said he had told so many "tall tales" he wasn't sure what was fact and what was fiction anymore. Wanted to know if the crowd would rather hear him talk about flying. The crowd went wild. The stories were funny and fascinating.
A true legend.
-
Oh, and the new Disney "Right Stuff" totally leave out Yeager. While entertaining it's just not right. He was... The Right Stuff
-
He got drunk the night before, fell in a ditch and made history with a broken rib.
-
I thought he was riding a horse, racing his wife. When the horse threw him breaking a couple of ribs.
-
No, I think there is a book about Pablo's, the bar all those guys hung out at. It was run by a woman who had been an Ferry Pilot.
-
He got drunk the night before, fell in a ditch and made history with a broken rib.
I knew he broke a rib (or wrist) but can't remember how. I'm glad I'm not the only one in the world who ever got drunk and fell in a ditch. Now I can tell people that me and Chuck Yeager had something in common that most people don't. I'm one of the elite. ;)