Yeager made the record flight with two broken ribs.
The legendary American test pilot, and the first man to break through the sound wall, retired Brigadier General Charles Chuck Elwood Yeager was born in Virginia on February 13, 1923. He began his military and aviation career during World War II, initially as a mechanic to advance to the P-51 Mustang fighter pilot. During the war in 64 flights over Europe, he shot down 13 German planes and was hit once. After the war, he became a flight instructor and then a test pilot.
Operating the Bell X-1 experimental rocket aircraft, which was dropped from a US B-29 bomber over southern California on October 14, 1947, it became the first man to break through the sound wall and fly faster than sound (1 mah or more than 1152 km / h). Yeager gave the nickname Glamorous Glennis to his wife, Glenn. The astonishing fact is that Chuck achieved that record with two broken ribs. Specifically, the night before the flight he was injured in a fall from a horse. Fearing he would be replaced by another pilot, he secretly went to the vet, who had his ribs fastened. He only told of the injury to his wife and friend, fellow pilot Jack Ridley. On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not close the X-1 opening, so Ridley smuggled him past the handle of the broom with which he managed to close the door as a lever.
Six years later, Scott Crossfield was able to fly at speeds in excess of 2 maha, which Yeager immediately responded by setting a new speed record of 2.44 maha.
Following these endeavors, Yeager resumed test flights (he was the second US pilot to fly a Soviet MIG-15 fighter), and dropped the record only in 1963 after a crash test on the school’s NF-104s Lockhead. He then held various command duties in the U.S. Air Force (including the Vietnam War), until 1975, when he retired as a brigadier general. And retired, Yeager went on to fly, and was a consultant at NASA. His flying career was over 60 years, with him flying over every corner of the globe, including the USSR, where he was invited as a guest of honor at the height of the Cold War.
Chuck Yeager was one of the main characters in the famous movie The Right Stuf (portrayed here as The Road to Space), directed by Philip Kaufman. Yagera was played by Sam Shepard, and the famous pilot himself briefly appears in the movie.
Chuck Yeager is the recipient of many accolades and honors and is named in the US as airports, bridges, streets … He is considered one of the greatest pilots of all time in the world
