Chuck Yeager, USAF Officer and Test Pilot

Chuck Yeager, USAF Officer and Test Pilot

Captain Chuck Yeager in 1948. Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born February 13, 1923) is a retired brigadier general in the United States Air Force and record-setting test pilot. His career began in WWII as a private in the United States Army Air Forces. After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of flight officer and became a P-51 fighter pilot. After the war, Yeager became a test pilot of many types of aircraft, including experimental rocket-powered aircraft. He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany, and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units he was promoted to brigadier general. Yeager's flying career spans more than 60 years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, including the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. On October 14, 2012, on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager did it again at the age of 89, riding in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain David Vincent out of Nellis Air Force Base.

Album / Science Source / U.S. Air Force

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3265 x 4200 px | 39.2 MB

27.6 x 35.6 cm | 10.9 x 14.0 in (300 dpi)