Aviation Legend Chuck Yeager Dies at 97

One of the greatest legends in aviation history has died.

Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in an airplane, earning him the designation as “the fastest man alive,” passed away on Monday. He was 97.

Yeager’s name and exploits transcend aviation. A World War II ace pilot, Yeager – a retired United States Air Force General – volunteered to be one of the test pilots for the X-1 jet. He was selected by Col. Albert Boyd, the chief of the USAF Flight Test Division, to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1. “He chose Yeager because he considered him the best ‘instinctive’ pilot he had ever seen and he had demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to remain calm and focused in stressful situations,” Yeager’s website explained, according to CNN.

After months of flights with the X-1, Yeager broke the sound barrier with his aircraft, which he dubbed the ‘Glamorous Glennis’ on October 14, 1947, over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 reached Mach 1.06 or 700 miles per hour, making Yeager the first man to travel faster than the speed of sound.

Ironically, the public didn’t learn of the record-breaking feat until 1948 when the U.S. decided to release the news.

“This is a sad day for America,” John Nicoletti, Yeager’s friend and ground crew chief, told CNN Monday night. “After he broke the sound barrier, we all now have permission to break barriers. … Yeager was never a quitter. He was an incredibly courageous man.”

Yeager flew 64 missions and shot down 13 German planes in World War II.

After breaking the speed of sound barrier, he continued to test aircraft and set the speed record for a straight wing aircraft of Mach 2.44 in December of 1953. In 1962 he became commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School to prepare US military test pilots for spaceflight,” according to his website, where 37 graduates of that program were selected for the U.S. space program, with 26 flying in the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.

Yeager was one of the men immortalized in the 1983 film, “The Right Stuff,” adapted from Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction novel about the first 15 years of America’s space program.