Check out these truly amazing feats by Chuck Yeager, one of America's greatest pilots and a legendary figure in aviation.
Retired Air Force General Chuck Yeager answers questions from the media, during a press conference honouring the 50th anniversary of his first supersonic flight, October 14 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947 in a Bell X-1 aircraft similar to the one behind him, nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis."
REUTERS
There has never been anyone quite like late US Air Force Brig. Gen. (ret.) Chuck Yeager, a truly legendary figure in aviation.
Yeager, who died Tuesday at the age of 97, led a life full of unbelievable heroics and achievements epic enough to warrant having a book, "The Right Stuff," and a movie of the same name made about him.
His wife, Victoria Yeager, tweeted late Tuesday evening that her husband's life was "an incredible life well lived," adding that "America's greatest pilot" and "a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever."
In a statement on Yeager's passing, NASA said his death "is a tremendous loss to our nation."
"Gen. Yeager's pioneering and innovative spirit advanced America's abilities in the sky and set our nation's dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age," the statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine read.
Here are 9 of the amazing things Yeager did in his life.
In 1944, while fighting in World War Two, Yeager became the first in his flight group to make "ace in a day" by shooting down five enemies in a single mission. Yeager's P-51D-20NA, which he named Glamorous Glen III.
On October 14, 1947, Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier by flying an X-1 at Mach 1.07. At the time, he had two broken ribs which he sustained from falling off a horse two days before the flight.
Chuck Yeager posing in the cockpit of the X-1, the vehicle that he broke the sound barrier with.
In 1962, Yeager became the first commandant of the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, and over in late 1963/early 1964 he set a record for completing five flights in the NASA M2-F1 lifting body.
The M2-F1 is an unpowered prototype aircraft that is towed through the air by another aircraft.
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