Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/07/chuck-yeager-rip-1923-2020.html
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I am temped to post a video from The Right Stuff but I know it is highly fictionalized, and this is about Real Chuck Yeager. But the story of the broom handle is actually true. He really did break the sound barrier with the use of one arm.
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I like to think that Chuck’s smile was rooted in the fact that he knew they could never take his achievement away. Glad to see he had a good long life.
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I’m honestly at a loss for words. He is a childhood hero who survived the blandishments of the 21st century. Pure guts, followed by pure integrity, that is all I can say.
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Sic transit gloria mundi.
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Some folks pack enough for two or three remarkable lives into one.
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I don’t know about you all, but growing up, “Flying with Chuck” was a euphemism for doing JägerMeister shots until you passed out. Perhaps I’m not remembering this as the right stuff, but I can’t conceive of why that might be. See also: “Flying with the Baron” for that honey stuff.
In honor of a stupid childhood, I raise my shot glass one more time…
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Sic transit gloria caeli, surely.
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my first computer flight simulator was the Chuck Yeager test flight program, for the Mac no less!
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So passes the most famous test pilot of all time.
I remember playing Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Simulator on an IBM-PC back in the day. Someone came up with a mod which allowed one to alter the flight characteristics of the given planes or “create new ones” Usually I just ended up giving a Cessna the thrust of a Saturn V rocket, whose wings ripped off the minute you pushed the throttle past 5%
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Chuck Yeager occasionally would come by my parents shop. He was humble about his achievements. A warm and generous person who always had a smile to share.
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This is insane.
Yeager Destroys Me 262: The Encounter Report of Captain Yeager’s first destruction of an Me 262 jet fighter and damage to two Me 262′s. This report details the daring chase that separated Capt. Yeager from his squadron and the encounter near an enemy airfield. Capt Yeager shot the Me 262 down as it was on final approach to land at the enemy airfield. Yeager’s only option was to fly down the runway low and fast. Airfield defenses fired shots missing Yeager but hitting airfield defenses on the opposite side of the runway. View the document.
Source: chuckyeager.com.
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I was a little kid standing with my parents on the bank of the Kanawha River to see Chuck Yeager fly over in the first jet airplane we’d ever seen, in 1948. He amazed everyone by flying UNDER the McCorkle Ave. bridge at 480 mph. There was maybe 30 feet of clearance.
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What an absolute legend. God speed.
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“Sad news, but now he’s flying higher and faster than ever.”
– My SO
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Famous Yeager quote: “The first time I saw a jet, I shot it down.”
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Old aviation maxim: “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.” Except for him. He was the original Old Bold Pilot.
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