Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97
Gen. Charles Yeager talks to members of the media following a re-enactment flight commemorating his breaking of the sound barrier 65 years earlier, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, died Monday, Dec. 7, 2020, at age 97. Yeager died Monday, his wife, Victoria Yeager, said on his Twitter account. Among the flights he made after breaking the sound barrier was one on Dec. 12. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Collier air trophy in December 1948 for his breaking the sound barrier. ___This version corrects that Yeager flew an F-15, not an X-15, when he was 79.
Gen. Chuck Yeager, first person to break sound barrier, dies at 97
HOUSTON โ Gen. Chuck Yeager, a fighter pilot best known as becoming the first person to break the sound barrier, died Monday. Born in West Virginia, Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941 and flew during World War II and shot down more than a dozen German planes. On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager flew a rocket plan called โGlamorous Glennisโ over the Mojave Desert to break the sound barrier. Yeager went on to become a trainer of some of the first American astronauts. He made an appearance in the movie โThe Right Stuff,โ which is about the early days of the American space program.