Let's get the answer out of the way about General Yeager flying Mach 2+. Yes, he did. In December 1953, he reached Mach 2.44. Although his fame is mostly due to breaking the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, he was also the first person to fly Mach 2 in level flight (a different pilot and aircraft broke Mach 2 one month prior to Yeager, but they achieved Mach 2 in a sustained dive -- basically, they had help from the laws of physics).
The picture of Chuck Yeager at the top of the article has a "secret." See if you can figure it out, and then check if you are right at the end of the article!
Brigadier General (ret.) Chuck Yeager is an anachronism in the realm of Air Force flight testing. Nowadays, an Air Force flight test pilot has at least a bachelor's degree in engineering; most of them have master's degrees. Contrasting today's test pilot education with Yeager's educational background, he never graduated nor attended college.
Related The Various Achievements Of Legendary US Test Pilot Chuck Yeager
Seventy-five years ago, on October 14th, 1947, Charles (Chuck) Yeager became the first pilot in history to break the sound barrier.
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In the 21st Century, Yeager would not be eligible for the Air Force's flight test program or entry-level flight school.
In Chuck Yeager's day, the majority of military pilots were not college graduates. Not having a college degree was never a barrier for Yeager. He was often referred to as a natural-born pilot.
Although Yeager had no formal engineering training, he was often described as an "intuitive engineer." He could troubleshoot a problem in flight and decide on a course of action.
Jack Ridley, a fellow test pilot and friend of Chuck Yeager, said, "Yeager flew an airplane as if he was an integral part of it, and that his 'feel' for the plane was instinctive."
Stating this in test pilot jargon, Yeager was a superb "stick n' rudder man." Another appropriate phrase to describe Yeager's piloting skills was being able to "fly by the seat of his pants."
Jack Ridley was attending an engineering meeting one day, and said this about Yeager:
"Well, maybe Chuck can fly without using the elevator. Maybe he can get by using only the horizontal stabilizer." This discussion was about Yeager's near-fatal mishap during a Bell X-1 test flight the previous day. They were walking through alternatives if further problems surfaced on the next test flight. The Bell X-1 design engineers had already weighed-in about the X-1's elevator freeze-up. Unless the X-1 project manager put everything on hold for a couple of months, and told the engineers to come up with a design modification, then Yeager and Ridley would have to come up with some workarounds they could try in-flight, if necessary.
Photo: Maximin Stock l Shutterstock
The foregoing scenario demonstrated that test pilots were paid to take risks and that when things do not go as planned, a college degree is not as important as seat-of-the-pants flying skills.
Photo: Jack Ridley l U.S. Air Force l Department of Defense Media Gallery General Yeager's Early Career
Before continuing, please take three minutes to watch the video embedded here. It is a good primer.
General Yeager was born in 1923 in West Virginia. He graduated from high school in June 1941 and enlisted in the Army Air Force three months later. He was trained as an aircraft mechanic, but he applied and was accepted for the Flying Sergeants Program a year later. He finished pilot training and was promoted to an officer. Yeager shipped out for England in November 1943.
Photo: BlueBarronPhoto l Shutterstock
Yeager flew the North American P-51 Mustang while deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO). His unit was the 363rd Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group. Yeager's 363rd FS was one of three assigned to the 357th FG. They were all stationed at RAF Leiston throughout their ETO deployment.
Yeager became an accomplished P-51 pilot. During his many sorties escorting bombers into Germany, he became a fighter "ace" after shooting down six Messerschmitt 109 fighters -- five of the victories were in one day! A month later, he defeated five more Germans, four of them Focke-Wulf 190s, all in one day.
Photo: Dennis W. Donanhue l Shutteratock
This Me 109 was photographed on its takeoff roll in May 2022 as part of a warbird airshow.
Photo: BlueBarronPhoto l Shutterstock
This Fw 190 was photographed during a 2015 airshow in Ypsilanti, MI.
General Yeager served in combat in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. His military career spanned 34 years. He was awarded the following medals:
Presidential Medal of Freedom Air Force Distinguished Service Medal Army Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star (twice) Legion of Merit (Twice) Distinguished Flying Cross (three) Bronze Star with V (valor) device Purple Heart Air Medal (10) Air Force Commendation Medal General Yeager's work outside of military combat assignments
When Yeager's European war assignment ended, he returned to the States. Whereas many of his contemporary Air Force officers were opting to be discharged to start a family or attend college, the General decided to stay in the Air Force.
Since his wife was expecting their first child, it made sense to be stationed closer to the town they grew up in West Virginia. The closest option was Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
Considering there were no interstate freeways back then, it was about a four-hour drive to West Virginia.
When Yeager transferred to Wright-Patterson in 1946, little consideration was given to the job slot he would be assigned. It actually turned out to be quite fortuitous. Colonel Albert Boyd was the director of the Aeronautical Systems Flight Test Division at WPAFB.
Boyd was looking for a fighter test pilot. In 1947, Colonel Boyd transferred Yeagar to the flight test center at Edwards. The famous supersonic Bell X-1 test flight would occur later in the year.
Chuck Yeager had a strong sense of duty. He said:
"It's your duty to fly the airplane. If you get killed in it, you don't know anything about it anyway. Duty is paramount. It's that simple if you're a military guy. You don't say 'I'm not going to do that -- that's dangerous.' If it's your duty to do it, that's the way it is."
Flight testing nowadays is different than it was in 1947. When Yeager first reported to the flight test center, he was still a Second Lieutenant. Like many officers in W.W. II, and Yeager was no different, wartime promotions were only temporary, and would revert back to their permanent rank when the war ended. This happened to Yeager, who was a temporary Captain.
Yeager was promoted to First Lieutenant two months prior to his historic X-1 flight. Capping off Yeager's rank situation, it was just as astonishing that he was only 24 years old!
Breaking Mach 2
Until the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act in 1986, there was no process in place to ensure that career officers were assigned to at least one joint billet during their career. Taking this one step further, the service branches did very little joint work. This was never more true than the flight testing done at Edwards. The Navy, Air Force, and NACA (NASA's predecessor) all had their own flight test programs underway.
NACA employed the test pilots and engineers. In the case of Navy flight testing at Edwards, they had two favorite test pilots: Scott Crossfield and Slick Goodlin. These pilots had a natural rivalry going on with the Air Force's favorite pilots, Chuck Yeager and Jack Ridley.
Photo: Robert Enriquez l Shutterstock
Ever since Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, testing resources were devoted to breaking Mach 2. Crossfield and Goodlin flew the Navy-sponsored Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, while Yeager's team flew the Bell X-1A for the Mach 2 testing project.
The Bell X-1A was not really the "A" version of the X-1. It had a similar external appearance to the X-1 but was significantly larger and had a completely different engine.
By 1953, both projects were getting closer to Mach 2.
Scott Crossfield accomplished the feat on November 20, 1953, in the Douglas D-558-2. Crossfield had barely crossed over Mach 2. Not to be outdone, Yeager's team started preparations to break Crossfield's record using the new X-1A.
After a series of X-1A flights, they inched their way up to Mach 2. Yeager broke Mach 2 on December 12th, achieving a speed record of 2.44! Making matters worse for Crossfield's team, the organizers of the 50th Anniversary of Flight Celebration scheduled for December 17, 1953, planned to award Crossfield for being "the fastest man alive." The award was an anticlimax due to Yeager's Mach 2.44 flight five days earlier.
Photo: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service l National Aeronautics and Space Administration The end of Yeager's remarkable flight test career
Chuck Yeager completed his flight test career in 1965 when he handed over the leadership reigns of the USAF test pilot school. He then went through transition training to fly the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II.
Photo: Farid Islam l Shutterstock
Yeager was assigned to take command of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base, the Philippines. The 405th TFW rotated its three fighter squadrons in and out of Southeast Asia for combat operations.
General Yeager would never have considered serving as the commander of a unit engaged in combat operations without flying his share of missions. To that end, he flew 127 missions during the Vietnam conflict.
After Yeager's promotion to Brigadier General in 1969, he reported to Germany as the vice commander of the 17th Air Force. His final assignment prior to retirement was the Air Attaché billet at the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.
By any measure, Brigadier General Chuck Yeager's Air Force career was consequential on many levels. Serving 34 years and retiring as a Brigadier General is a remarkable achievement, even more so considering that he was not college-educated. I can only conclude that he had incredible flying skills and was a natural leader.
What is the secret about the leading photograph atop this article?
Answer: This photograph was taken at Edwards AFB, CA in 1962. At the time, General Yeager was the commandant of the Air Force test pilot school. It was co-located at Edwards with the USAF flight test center.
Yeager was holding an X-15 model and a photo of the Bell X-1, in which he was the first man to break the sound barrier. The photo was meant to contrast what the flight test center was doing in 1947 when Yeager was a test pilot vs the advanced test programs flown 15 years later in the North American X-15 rocket plane. Although the General flew Mach 2.44 in 1953, it was not done in the X-15. Of all the dozens and dozens of planes he flew, the X-15 was not one of them. He never flew the X-15 rocket plane. Yeager wanted to fly the X-15 but was not certified to fly it. There was no flight test objective that could be cited as justification for Yeager's "spin around the block."