RIP Chuck Yeager

[ryoder 1,381]

https://www.cnet.com/news/famed-pilot-chuck-yeager-dies-at-age-97/

[dudeman17 267]

I hope they got Beeman's in the great beyond...

[kallend 1,621]

So many of my childhood heroes are gone now.

[Guest]

 

• So many of my childhood heroes are gone now.

 

Same here, and soon, so will we be. There will be others, though, who will one day soon make ours look like infants in comparison. There is still a glorious horizon out there, just waiting for the bold.

"Him, him...." Go easy, General. You more than earned your rest.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Guest

[Phil1111 908]

"In 2016, when General Yeager was asked on Twitter what made him want to become a pilot, the reply was infused with cheeky levity: “I was in maintenance, saw pilots had beautiful girls on their arms, didn’t have dirty hands, so I applied.”...

He flew P-51 Mustang fighters in the European theater during World War II, and in March 1944, on his eighth mission, he was shot down over France by a German fighter plane and parachuted into woods with leg and head wounds. But he was hidden by members of the French underground, made it to neutral Spain by climbing the snowy Pyrenees, carrying a severely wounded flier with him, and returned to his base in England....

On Oct. 12, 1944, leading three fighter squadrons escorting bombers over Bremen, he downed five German planes, becoming an ace in a day. In November, he shot down another four planes in one day....

He was chosen over more senior pilots to fly the Bell X-1 in a quest to break the sound barrier, and when he set out to do it, he could barely move, having broken two ribs a couple of nights earlier when he crashed into a fence while racing with his wife on horseback in the desert....

He commanded a fighter wing during the Vietnam War while holding the rank of colonel. He flew 127 missions, mainly piloting Martin B-57 light bombers'

Legend.

 

[ryoder 1,381]

5 hours ago, kallend said:

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by ryoder

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

"In 2016, when General Yeager was asked on Twitter what made him want to become a pilot, the reply was infused with cheeky levity: “I was in maintenance, saw pilots had beautiful girls on their arms, didn’t have dirty hands, so I applied.”...

He flew P-51 Mustang fighters in the European theater during World War II, and in March 1944, on his eighth mission, he was shot down over France by a German fighter plane and parachuted into woods with leg and head wounds. But he was hidden by members of the French underground, made it to neutral Spain by climbing the snowy Pyrenees, carrying a severely wounded flier with him, and returned to his base in England....

On Oct. 12, 1944, leading three fighter squadrons escorting bombers over Bremen, he downed five German planes, becoming an ace in a day. In November, he shot down another four planes in one day....

He was chosen over more senior pilots to fly the Bell X-1 in a quest to break the sound barrier, and when he set out to do it, he could barely move, having broken two ribs a couple of nights earlier when he crashed into a fence while racing with his wife on horseback in the desert....

He commanded a fighter wing during the Vietnam War while holding the rank of colonel. He flew 127 missions, mainly piloting Martin B-57 light bombers'

Legend.

 

How did he manage to fit into the cockpit with those enormous brass ones in the way?!

[SethInMI 145]

Reading Chuck's wikipedia entry brought me to the pile o' drama called Victoria Yeager as detailed in this LA Times story: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jul-02-et-hubler2-story.html

1. I hope he reconciled with his kids, although he seems irascible enough that maybe that never happened.

2. I am glad that as my own parents approach the age that Chuck was when they met, neither are well-enough off to get any serious gold-diggers attention.