Anybody remember Chuck Yeager?

[WILCO]

Picked up his autobiography the other day. Action packed thus far. He opens with being dropped from the belly of a B-29 while sitting in the X-1, and has a total electrical failure! No radio, no switches working, no jet rocket firing! In a split second, he decides to manually dump his heavy fuel payload via the mechanical valve behind his head. It's now a race between gravity pulling him towards the desert floor as a soon to be overweight pancake in a crater, or gravity dumping the fuel behind him in a misty trail for a feathery nose up landing! Talk about a ride!

[WILCO]

Rolex ad from 1997:

[popper]

We just designed this new rocket plane and you are elected to make the maiden voyage.

[williamwaco]

We need more like him!

[Matt_G]

He was one heck of a pilot.
Had a pair the size of basketballs...

[uscra112]

We just designed this new rocket plane and you are elected to make the maiden voyage.

It kinda was like that. The Bell contract pilot "Wheaties" Welch kept demanding bigger and bigger bonuses to fly the thing, and on top of that he wasn't getting anywhere, so the Air Force took the program over and handed it to Yeager, who was actually pretty low on the totem pole at the time.

[MtGun44]

I have his book, he autographed it for me at Oshkosh. I have heard him talk at least
10 times, and gotten to talk to him briefly once. Neat guy and pretty amazing to keep
his health. I also have his wingman, Bud Anderson's book, autographed, too. Bud is
right up there with Chuck, and his book is also well worth reading.

A lot of amazing guys out there.

Bill

[uscra112]

A lot of amazing guys out there.

Bill

They truly deserved the title of "The Greatest Generation".

[Bloodman14]

Have you seen the movie "The Right Stuff"? Absolutely fantastic. They all had a pair the size of basketballs.

[captaint]

Chuck and Bud are the real thing. Talk about balls. Someone said earlier - we need more just like them. Ain't that the truth. Real Americans, these guys. Mike

[Alvarez Kelly]

Met him many times. Heard him speak a few times. Nice guy.

[10-x]

Hell of a guy, wore the "Winged Boot" from WWII.

[zardoz]

I too have met him in person, after he gave a speech at our university engineering colloquium. Probably about 1982 or so.

[JeffinNZ]

Had a pair the size of basketballs...

Must have been quite the squeeze to get into the pilot's seat....

[TXGunNut]

Met him when I was a kid, had no idea I was shaking hands with history.

[waksupi]

A couple other guys on here know Uncle Don Weber from Kalispell. He was on Yaeger's flight crew when he was doing test flights, and also worked on the space launch with him. Don talked to me one night about his experiences with him, and was impressed by the man.

[Awsar]

read his book as a kid loved it wished i could be him.
wish i could go back in time to be there .

[fecmech]

I remember reading about him going for max altitude and pushing the envelope to the limit. He had run out of airspeed going for height and had no flight controls at all. I'm not sure but think he was over 100,000 ft and end up in a flat spin until he bailed out somewhere around 8-10K feet. All the way down he was trying everything he could think of to push the nose over so he could save the plane but nothing worked.

[condorjohn]

Next time you watch "The Right Stuff" check out the old guy sweeping the floor in the bar...
That's Chuck...

[WILCO]

Next time you watch "The Right Stuff" check out the old guy sweeping the floor in the bar...
That's Chuck...

Duly noted!

[Bloodman14]

Next time you watch "The Right Stuff" check out the old guy sweeping the floor in the bar...
That's Chuck...

Are you serious?!

[3006guns]

Next time you watch "The Right Stuff" check out the old guy sweeping the floor in the bar...
That's Chuck...

Oh, great! Wished I'd have known that.........it was just on t.v. this morning.

[2wheelDuke]

When I was a kid, my parents bought me Chuck Yaeger's Air Combat for the PC. I think it was a 386, maybe a 486 computer I played it on. I played hours and hours of that game. I also saw Chuck on TV alot on Discovery channel, before there was a Military channel. I loved the whole "Wings" series of documentaries.

[gandydancer]

He is still flying around in his super cub as far as I know. GD [smilie=w:

[Echo]

Many don't know that he was a POW in WWII - escaped, and his escapade was recorded in some war movie. Made BG, as some heroes do, but was too independent (as most heroes are) to get the second star.

[WILCO]

Many don't know that he was a POW in WWII - escaped.

As far as I know, he wasn't a POW. He did avoid capture with the help of the French Underground. Spent almost a month behind enemy lines and trekked across the Pyrenees with a Lieutenant, who was a navigator on a B-24 that was shot down over France. During this time, they were ambushed by a German patrol and the Lieutenant was injured in the leg. Chuck Yeager needed to cut the lower leg off with a pen knife and had to literally drag them both into Spain.

[ErikO]

I also read his book as a kid and had his flight sim. I got the SR-71 going so fast that it ripped its wings off. The last image was of Gen Yeager giving me the thumbs up and saying that I did what any good test pilot would have done...once. ;)

[10-x]

As far as I know, he wasn't a POW. He did avoid capture with the help of the French Underground. Spent almost a month behind enemy lines and trekked across the Pyrenees with a Lieutenant, who was a navigator on a B-24 that was shot down over France. During this time, they were ambushed by a German patrol and the Lieutenant was injured in the leg. Chuck Yeager needed to cut the lower leg off with a pen knife and had to literally drag them both into Spain.
Right, thus the "Winged Boot" badge for walking out. There are many excellent books on US WWII Pilots that would make great movies, truth is stranger than fiction.

[Boz330]

Bob Hoovers autobiography is also a good read. He was a POW and escaped and stole a German Focke Wulf 190 and flew it back to a friendly field. It did get a little sticky trying to land at an Allied field though.
He was also a test pilot with Yeager and was backup on the X-1 project.

Bob

[10-x]

Yep. "Forever Flying" is a good real. Read Bindiner's "Fall of Fortress's"?

[gsdelong]

"Spam in a can" referred to Astronauts who were passengers in the space ship. Just heard him.a couple of months ago still pissed that they replaced monkeys with "spacemen".

[AW738]

He was born in the next county over from me in Myra WV.

[Echo]

Chuck and Bud are the real thing. Talk about balls. Someone said earlier - we need more just like them. Ain't that the truth. Real Americans, these guys. Mike

Not only real Americans, but Warriors, and Leaders! DANG! We SURE need more warriors/leaders...