Word: yeager
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...moment too soon comes General Chuck Yeager to re-establish old-fashioned standards of heroism. Yeager does not arrive out of the blue yonder. He is the world's most famous aviator, the hillbilly Lindy who shot down 13 German aircraft in World War II (five in one day) and went on to become the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound and live. His legendary career as a test pilot and hell raiser was sketched in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Played by Sam Shepard in the movie, Yeager inspired the film's strongest image...
...effortlessly through the celebrity barrier, though it is not likely that talk-show hosts will draw the usual life-style blather from this tough old rooster. The world he describes is an arena of endless combat where victory means maneuvering behind your opponents and "hammering'em." It happened to Yeager over France, when he was flying his P-51 Mustang and three German fighters jumped him. He parachuted, evaded capture with the help of the underground, and not only made it to England but got the rules bent to allow him back into...
...Yeager's style is to push planes and regulations to the limits of his skill and confidence. This means further than anyone else. He is frequently "cobbing" his engine, flying "balls to the wall," and coming close to "augering in." As an Air Force test pilot on captain's pay, he took the same risks as his high-salaried civilian counterparts. He resented those who flew for the money and was riled by flyers he felt did not listen to an experienced country boy. Scott Crossfield "just knew it all, which is why he ran a Super Sabre through...
...Yeager's practical approach to death may have its origins in his West Virginia childhood. Not long after six-year-old Brother Roy accidentally killed his baby sister with a shotgun, Yeager's father sat the boys down and said simply, "I want to show you how to safely handle firearms." This matter-of-factness fits right in with the airman's cocky stoicism. Violent death may be inevitable, but problem solving goes on until the moment of impact. There is also a sixth sense of machinery that Yeager calls his "knowledgeable feel," his love of engines and valves...
...others for $5,000. For that modest amount he got not only fabulous publicity for his first issue but the next year?s worth of centerfold photos. Only at the end of 1954 did he start assigning ?original art? from such cheesecake shutterbugs as Russ Meyer and Bunny Yeager. Even then, Hefner was like Columbus in the New World: he didn?t exactly know what he?d discovered. Some models appeared more than once as Playmates, and - bonus points for this - the March 1955 issue had no centerfold...