Word: yeager
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...desert and the strictest military secrecy, Muroc Air Force Base is a strange sort of community. In all it does, it is dedicated to military aircraft performance, with special emphasis on speed. In the realm of speed it also has its king. He is Captain Charles ("Chuck") Yeager, 26, a modest, blue-eyed test pilot with an infectious grin and an easy West Virginia drawl. What makes Chuck Yeager outstanding, even among the crack pilots at Muroc, is the fact that his name is certain to go down prominently in aviation history books. Chuck Yeager was the first...
...Love. Test Pilot Yeager knew all this when he prepared to fly the Air Force's odd little Bell speedster. He took over the X-1 from a civilian test pilot, Chalmers ("Slick") Goodlin, who had flown the ominous little ship at Mach .8 (eight-tenths of the speed of sound). Goodlin was offered a fat reward (a rumored $150,000) for flying it at full speed, but he did not like the terms. Another civilian pilot had a try at the X-1 and hastily bowed out. Then the Air Force took charge and gave...
...Chuck Yeager could not see much, but he had plenty to do. Swiftly he checked the instruments, tried the controls and adjusted his oxygen mask. Outside he could hear the thunder of the B-29's great engines and feel the vibration as the bomber climbed higher & higher. He felt it wheel on a turn, and heard Major Cardenas' voice on the radio: "Am turning on downwind leg at 21,000 ft." Then the bomber wheeled again. "Am turning on the base leg," said Major Cardenas. "Five minutes to drop time...
...sudden acceleration hit Chuck Yeager like a sledge hammer and the X-1 climbed high at tremendous speed. ("It's like having hold of something by the tail and not daring let go.") At carefully timed intervals he fired the other rockets. Each gave the little orange airplane another mighty push. Chuck didn't hear much noise; he was leaving sound behind...
...Bell X-1 rocket plane started its famous supersonic flights by being dropped from a high-flying B29. Last week, trying something new, it took off from the ground for the first time under its own (four rocket motor) power. Piloted by 25-year-old Captain Charles E. Yeager, the first man to fly faster than sound, it streaked across the desert at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif., and was airborne after only 2,300 ft., a shorter ground run than most standard fighters require...