Who is chuck yeager? (OT)

[Ken Norris (dialup)]

Hi Klaus,

> Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 20:03:59 +0200
> From: Klaus Major <klaus at major-k.de>
> Subject: Re: Who is chuck yeager?

> 
> Hi Marian,
> 
>> Famous (and highly daring) fighter jock/test pilot... a key figure in
>> the movie The Right Stuff.

Actually, the most important achievment of Chuck Yeager, and for which he is
most well known, is that he was the _first_ pilot to break the sound
barrier.

He did it on October 14, 1947, in an experimental mission-specific
rocket-powered aircraft called the X-1, built by Bell Aviation, which was
mounted to, and launched from, the belly of a B-29. He named it "Glamorous
Glennis II" after his wife (the first Glamorous Glennis was a P-51 Mustang)

At the time, he was purported to have had a dislocated shoulder, but he knew
the flight surgeon would ground him, so he didn't report it, made the flight
in a lot of pain.

In 1990, while I was in the Civil Air Patrol, Lake Tahoe Sqdn, I met him in
person at an aerospace education conference (10,000 teachers, high-ranking
NASA, FAA, USAF personnel, and other 'living legend' historical figures in
aviation) which lasted three days in Reno, Nevada.

I consider it a priviledge.

Oh, and one more historical item. I think he was the only fighter pilot at
the end of WWII to shoot down the famous German jet from a piston-engine
propellered aircraft (a P-51).

Ken N.