RIP Chuck Yeager 1923-2020

[stuart]

Great American. Past away yesterday. Dec. 7th (Pearl Harbor Day). Almost missed it in the news. Figured we hear more about it.

I read his autobiography over the summer. Was always enamoured with him as a kid but had no idea of his many exploits and accomplishments. Great book if your into aviation.

WW2 ace, 11 kills, 5 in one day.

Escaped the Germans after getting shot down.

Saved his fellow escapee from the Germans (this is a story in itself)

Probably one of our greatest intuitive fighter pilots/test pilots ever.

Oh yea, first to break the sound barrier.

And much much more.

Amazing that he didn't die about 10 times in the 1940s to the 1960's.

 

[bykfixer]

Good thread Stuart.

RIP Chuck. Ya dun good.

Oh, and he played a role in designing the suspension of the 3rd generation Honda Prelude after owning a 2nd gen one. I'm a big Prelude fan and when I found out Chuck was also a fan it made a wee bit more of a fan.

 

[raggie33]

he was a bit before my time but he sounds amazeing

 

[aginthelaw]

When I did medical transports, I took one of his crew members to a doctors appointment. He said Yeager was so cocky he told him one day someone was gonna shoot him in the ***. That same day they were flying in Korea and somebody shot a missile and it went right into their plane without blowing up. It lodged right under his seat and he had to fly back standing up. Can't remember if the crew bailed out before he landed the plane or he ditched it somewhere because they were all scared the missile would go off on landing

 

[bykfixer]

Nice!!

 

[pilo7448]

Wow I missed this, I grew up flying rc airplanes and going to more airshows than I can remember.. Seeing Art Scholl and his Super Chipmunk in the early 80's and so many others.. These guys were true badasses. RIP Chuck

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk