CHUCK YEAGER Biography - Famous Sports men and women

 
 

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CHUCK YEAGER

Name: Charles Yeager                                                                 
Born: 13 February 1923 Lincoln County, West Virginia                                 
Nickname Chuck                                                                       
                                                                                     
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born February 13, 1923) is a retired Brigadier         
General in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot. In 1947, he           
became the first pilot (at age 24) to travel faster than sound in level flight       
and ascent.                                                                           
                                                                                     
His career began in World War II as a private in the U.S. Army Air Force. 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 (WW 2 U.S.   
Army Air Force rank equivalent to Warrant Officer) and became a P-51 fighter         
pilot. After the war he became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket     
planes. Although Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2 in     
1953, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4. 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 then was     
promoted to Brigadier General. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty           
years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union     
during the height of the Cold War.