The X-1 then rocketed separately to 40,000 feet (12,000 metres), and Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier, which was approximately 662 miles (1,066 km) per hour at that altitude. On October 14, 1947, over Rogers Dry Lake in southern California, he rode the X-1, attached to a B-29 mother ship, to an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,600 metres). Yeager was chosen to fly the secret Bell X-1 experimental aircraft, built to test the capabilities of the human pilot and a fixed-wing aircraft against the severe aerodynamic stresses of sonic flight. After the war he became a flight instructor and then a test pilot, securing a regular commission as a captain in 1947. He flew 64 missions over Europe during World War II, shot down 13 German aircraft, and was himself shot down over France (he escaped capture with the help of the French underground). He was commissioned a reserve flight officer in 1943 and became a pilot in the fighter command of the Eighth Air Force stationed in England. 13, 1923, at Myra, West Virginia, Chuck Yeager enlisted in the US Army in September 1941, shortly after graduating from high school, and was assigned to the Army Air Corps. “He was an incredibly courageous man.”īorn on Feb. “Yeager was never a quitter,” Nicoletti recalled of his friend. Nicoletti said that Yeager resided in Northern California but died in a Los Angeles hospital. “After he broke the sound barrier, we all now have permission to break barriers.”Īccording to Nicoletti, in recent years Yeager went through some physical challenges and had a fall that led to complications and other issues due to his age.
“This is a sad day for America,” John Nicoletti, Yeager’s friend and ground crew chief, told CNN.
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