CHUCK YEAGER - TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM - How his career and legend shaped my flying life and that - F-16.net
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TWO DEGREES OF
SEPARATION FROM
CHUCK
YEAGER
How his career and legend
shaped my flying life and that
of a million other pilots.
BY ISABEL GOYER
MY
instructor and I were quiet as we flew, the plane I had passed my Private Pilot check ride in the
winging along, a couple of hundred month before. The band instructor at the local community
feet above the starkly beautiful western college had bought the plane and put it on leaseback. All
Mojave Desert. I was doing the flying, the planes on the flight line were a year or two old. The
working on my commercial certifi- ’70s were like that, and, yes, I miss those days, too.
cate (which I would not complete for Back in the cockpit, I descended on a tight base leg,
another decade and a half), and the guy in the right seat, power back, a notch of flaps in and going for the second,
Si Campbell, was doing the instructing, which he mostly setting up for a touch-and-go at Rosamond, a little desert
did without saying a word. When he did say something, airstrip located just a few miles west of Edwards Air Force
it carried weight. Base and its massive dry lake runways. This little strip was
That early-spring day was perfect for flying. The winds almost impossible to see, but it was near its own dry lake,
were a whisper, and the air was crystal blue. Such spring which you couldn’t miss. Si had taught me to look not for
days pass for a near-miracle in those parts. From January the thing you won’t be able to find but for the landmark
through around May, the wind mostly whips in from the you can, and then, if you know where the airport is in rela-
southwest, stirring up dust and turning the air light dusky tion to that, you’ll find it. I use the technique to this day.
brown. Not that day. I was just a kid, but I knew my aviation history. And I
We were flying a red-white-and-blue, late-model Piper lived among retired jet jocks galore. I knew where I was,
Warrior, one of the special bicentennial issue models. It was airborne in a special part of the world, channeling the
BELOW: Arguably the most important instrument panel in aviation history, that of the Bell X-1 that Chuck Yeager flew to supersonic speeds in 1947.
planeandpilotmag.com 31
CHUCK YEAGER 1923–2020
ghosts of Chuck Yeager and Scott Crossfield and William that today.” That is, in fact, all that was ever said about it.
Dana and Neil Armstrong, as I abandoned the base leg Chastened, I squared off the pattern and did a by-the-
altogether and turned directly for field. book touch-and-go, the desert hills before us giving way
I’m not sure what possessed me, but instead of flying to a backdrop of big rock behind them as I made the left
a standard base to final, I just pointed the nose down and turn away from them over the raised arms of the Joshua
at the numbers. Then, without warning, out of nowhere, I trees below and headed back toward home.
felt the controls recenter, strongly, assuredly. I looked over, If you’re thinking my instructor must have been some
and, from the right seat, Si, a grandfatherly looking, white- kind of fuddy-duddy, I can assure you, you couldn’t be
haired, soft-spoken fellow, had simply corrected the flight more wrong. Si was retired from the Air Force, where his
path with his controls. He said only, “We won’t be flying like last job had been as an instructor pilot in the Mach 2.2
The original Bell X-1,
Glamorous Glennis,
named after Yeager’s wife,
launched from the belly
of a specially modified
Boeing B-29 mothership.
Once Yeager lit the rocket
engine, the bomber was left
in its wake, a fitting analogy
for the advent of the new
technology the X-1 helped
usher in.
McDonnell F-4 Phantom. He also taught in the Lockheed 11-1/2 Nazi fighters in his P-51 in World War II and went
F-104 Starfighter, which, with its top speed of just Mach on to fly 127 combat mission in Vietnam. Yeager was, as
2, was a slowpoke in comparison. you might know, a base commander at several different
Before that, Si did three tours of duty in Vietnam as a USAF facilities, a few of which Si spent time at. In short,
forward air controller flying propeller planes, Bird Dogs Si was a badass pilot who dressed and spoke more like
and O-2s over the jungles of Southeast Asia at treetop Mister Rogers than Buck Rogers. I mean, just look at the
level and came home without a scratch to his wife and guy. He was no Chuck Yeager. Or was he? He must have
nine kids every time. been, right? Regardless, his lesson for me that day was,
He never talked about any of it, but from my under- fly conservatively. My quandary, then and now, is how to
standing of Si’s Air Force job history, his boss on one and square those two worlds, those two identities.
possibly two different occasions had to be none other than Not that Si didn’t teach the entire envelope—he seemed
General Charles Elwood Yeager, the famous seat-of-your happiest, in fact, at its furthest corners. If a 20-knot cross-
pants, West Virginia-bred, hot dog pilot who shot down wind was blowing, Si would toss me the keys. On my first
foray into controlled airspace, we went to Lancaster’s Fox
Field. The second time, we went to LAX. And we did spins,
spins by the dozen in both directions, in the flight school’s
Cessna Aerobat. And we landed on local dry lakes, too,
engine out, know the wind, suss out the surface and land.
At the time, I figured it was just for the fun of it. There were
some important lessons to be learned, though there were
probably some I missed and might still be missing. Forty
years down the line, I’m still
“
learning from him. And the
message that day, when he
corrected the controls, stuck
with me because he wasn’t It wasn’t just me.
telling me how to fly. He was
showing me how to be. Chuck Yeager,
To be honest, I was smitten
with the thrill of flying fast
along with a
and low. As a new pilot, hell,
even before I got my ticket, I
whole generation
did things in airplanes that,
in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t,
of flying heroes,
though it’s probably closer changed everything
to the truth to say that I
know that I should wish that for all of us.
”
I hadn’t done them. And in
my defense, who could blame
me? The winds that blew
through that place, that high desert, dry-lake-dotted
basin-and-range wonderland, were imbued with some
kind of magic. I was, after all, sailing in that same ocean
of air as Chuck Yeager did when, 30 years prior, not much
older than me at the time, he had flown faster than any
human ever before.
It wasn’t just me. Chuck Yeager, along with a whole
generation of flying heroes, changed everything for all
of us. Our skies were closer to heaven than ever, and our
idols moved throughout them like gods. In my father’s
youth, the heroes were Hollywood singing cowboys with
pretty horses and six-shooters? How last century. We had
real-life high-flyers in Mach-busting jets with weaponry
that would wow Aries himself. Our heroes were alive and
busting the sound barrier in real life. How could a young
pilot not be inspired?
planeandpilotmag.com 33
CHUCK YEAGER 1923–2020
Yeager’s influence on pilots was hardly limited to my seemed to be what really mattered to him most. And those
little sagebrush patch of the world. Its reach was global, traits saved his life a lot more than once. After all, when a
which is fitting for the supersonic world he ushered in, German fighter is on your tail, or when you’re 50 seconds
a globe with continents now linked by hours instead of into a baffling, out-of-control, tumbling descent in an
months. Yeager’s legend, his myth, his story wasn’t just X-plane, or when you’re at risk of missing out on making
inspiring—it also helped create the very idea of what history in a rocket plane just because of a few broken
a pilot is…it’s Chuck Yeager, people. Smart, supremely ribs—well, in situations like that, you couldn’t think in a
self-assured, willing to live with a high degree of risk, linear way. You had to think supersonically. And he did,
and all while having the time of his life. That was a pilot. time and time again.
It kind of still is. Me? I’m just happy to have had shared a cockpit with
Of course, all or most of that flew in the face of what Si, a pilot I believed back then and believe to this day was
we know about safety now—heck, what we knew about the best in the world, and I’m equally happy to have had
it back then. The things that keep you alive are caution, inspiration from the guy who pushed it to Mach 1 and
humility, thoughtfulness and planning, along with an beyond, in real life and in legend. Together, they made
ongoing consideration of and mitigation of the risks. It’s flying come to life for me.
not inspirational, just critical to survival. Si Campbell died in the early 1980s in the air while giving
Si’s magic, I think, was that he knew all of that, he lived a commercial check ride. I’ve missed him ever since. I wish
and flew in both worlds, and he shared those lessons on I could fly with him today. I’d have so many questions, and
every flight, even if he never put them into words, exactly. there’s so much left to learn. But that’s not the way it works.
They might be lessons that can’t be put into words, exactly. And even though he lasted four decades longer than
General Yeager knew those things, too. He had to in Si, Chuck Yeager, the ultimate flying cowboy, is dead and
order to survive and thrive in the regimented world of gone, as well. But you know what? They’re not really gone.
Air Force regulations, of dress uniforms and budgets and Just look up at the sky. That’s where they are. Where they’ve
assignments. Even so, his desire to fly fast and live hard always been, in fact. PP
CHUCK YEAGER’S SUPERSONIC
VOYAGE THROUGH LIFE
a hardscrabble existence, one that Yeager embraced.
The famed pilot’s exploits Unlike many pilots who reached the pinnacle of test flying
with engineering or aerospace degrees from Purdue or
outshone even the legend USC, Yeager’s military career started as an enlisted man,
serving as a U.S. Army private in World War II.
that grew up around him. In fact, he began his military service fixing, not flying,
airplanes. But he had other ideas, and within a year, he
had gotten his wings and began flying as a flight officer.
W
BY PLANE & PILOT Yeager chose to pursue flying, he later joked, because
hen Chuck Yeager, the legendary pilot whose pilots were more likely to get a date with a pretty woman
flight in the Bell X-1 in 1947 made the West than mechanics were.
Virginia-born test pilot the first to ever exceed It was clear from the start that he was a gifted pilot,
the speed of sound, died at 97 in Los Angeles, and he quickly progressed to flying the United States’
aviation lost not only a record setter but also a legend frontline fighter, the North American P-51 Mustang.
whose great fame couldn’t do justice to a life lived in But things didn’t start out so promising. Shortly after
the air. his first kill—on his eighth combat sortie—Yeager was
Charles Elwood Yeager was born on Feb. 13, 1923, in shot down. He survived and evaded capture, eventually
Myra, West Virginia, the son of a coal field driller. It was being smuggled to Spain by French Resistance operatives.
34 MARCH 2021 Ç Plane&Pilot
PLANES OF YEAGER TOP: Before he was famous, Yeager was a legend in Air Force lore for his flying exploits in the North American P-51D he piloted in the European Theater in World War II. After he was shot down on an early mission, Yeager turned the tables on his Luftwaffe adversaries, downing 11.5 enemy planes, including five in one day. MIDDLE: If it weren’t for this plane, however, the Bell X-1, Chuck Yeager might never have been the household name he became. In it, he became the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound, hitting Mach 1.06 on Oct. 14, 1947, over Muroc Army Air Field, what is today’s Edward’s Air Force Base. BOTTOM LEFT: Yeager has been associated with the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter for decades. While he set records in the supersonic plane and commanded squadrons of the fighters, his most memorable flight in one was a crash in 1963 in which the plane entered a flat spin, from which Yeager couldn’t recover. He successfully bailed out. BELOW: On the 50th anniversary of his first supersonic flight, Yeager did it again, flying in an Air Force F-15 out of Nellis Air Force Base outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
CHUCK YEAGER 1923–2020
Normally, his flying would have ended there, as the
United States had a firm policy against allowing
so-called evaders from returning to active duty, for
fear that if they were shot down again, the sensitive
information they possessed about the Resistance
fighters could compromise those operations. But
Yeager, along with a fellow evader, personally lob-
bied General Dwight D. Eisenhower to allow them
to return to active duty.
It was a good call. During the war, Yeager was
credited with 11.5 enemy aircraft downed. In fact,
he became an ace in one day, shooting down five
German aircraft; he later would shoot down three
Luftwaffe aircraft in a single day. So, a couple of years
before his famous supersonic flight, the legend of
Yeager was already established.
After the war, Yeager became a test pilot and
wound up at Muroc Army Air Field (now Edwards
Air Force Base) in the Mojave Desert of Southern
California, where he got the chance to fly the Bell
X-1, a then-top-secret rocket plane that the mili-
tary hoped would be able to break the so-called
sound barrier. It did. It was on Oct. 14, 1947, that
the 24-year-old Yeager climbed into the X-1 from
the B-29 mother ship at 23,000 feet and launched,
quickly climbing to 45,000 feet and hitting Mach
1.05.
After his test pilot career, Yeager, who by the
1960s had become a colonel, went on to command
USAF bases in Europe and the United States. He
also headed the USAF Aerospace Research Pilot Yeager commanded fighter bases around the world. He also headed the first
School, where advanced flight training was given astronaut training center, though because he wasn’t a college grad, he didn’t
to the military’s best pilots, some of whom went on qualify for the program he led.
to become astronauts, an opportunity not afforded
to Yeager because he lacked a college education. flight in the Bell X-1 and then fills in the backstory, includ-
And he kept on flying and fighting. Yeager flew 127 ing a scene depicting Yeager injuring his ribs in a late-
missions in Vietnam while commanding a squadron in the night horseback riding accident after drinks at Pancho’s
Philippines before being promoted to brigadier general Place, the local bar owned by Pancho Barnes. Fearing
in 1969. He retired from the Air Force in 1975 as one of that he might lose his chance to be the first pilot to go
the most highly decorated officers in Air Force history. supersonic, Yeager hid the injury from his superiors and
Yeager was well known already, but his fame advanced was only able to fly the X-1 that next day after his crew
to another level with the publishing of celebrated author chief and friend, Jack Ridley, helped him figure out a way
Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff and the subsequent 1983 to close the hatch with a broken-off broom handle. The
release of the Philip Kaufman film based on Wolfe’s best part about the story, along with most of the other
book. In the film, Yeager’s character, played by actor stories about Yeager, was that it was all true.
Sam Shepard, is shown as a hard-drinking, fast-flying Yeager’s fame will also live on in another way. The
aviator, a characterization Yeager approved and people drawl that many airline pilots adopted throughout the
who knew him at the time said was right on the money. ’60s and ’70s was based on Yeager’s distinctive, laid-back
He was a rule breaker and a rule bender, one who did West Virginia style of speech.
so within the culture of the Air Force that was built on Yeager was also a complicated figure, a fact that most
structure but depended on the kind of fierce indepen- accounts of his life have glossed over. He displayed a
dence of its pilots. sometimes-bristly demeanor around fans and had a pen-
The film opens with Yeager’s record-setting supersonic chant in his later years for filing infringement lawsuits,
36 MARCH 2021 Ç Plane&Pilot
including one against Airbus in 2019 for merely using then going on to become the first pilot to fly faster than
his name in a 2017 press release promoting one of its the speed of sound (and then some), a commander who
experimental helicopters. taught his very own brand of the right stuff to future
Yeager won’t be remembered for any of that, though, astronauts and test pilots, and, mostly, as a man who
but instead as the swashbuckling pilot, an enlisted man flew and lived his life on his own terms, with a swagger
who showed his mettle, first in World War II, evading that seemed to say it all.
capture after being shot down only to become an ace, Blue skies, General. PP
PLANE & PILOT FLEW
WITH CHUCK YEAGER
his lack of education, he was eventually accepted as a
We weren’t the least pilot trainee. Yeager understood the elements of flying
and air-to-air gunnery very well and soon became an
bit surprised that the exceptional pilot.
Yeager had another attribute that some other pilots
General was a natural. didn’t enjoy—outstanding vision. His eyesight was far
better than normal. “In air combat, you have a major
advantage if you can spot the enemy before he sees you,”
O
BY BILL COX Yeager explained. Success as a fighter pilot depended
ne of the most exciting perks of this job is the quite a bit on being in the right place at the right time.
opportunity to interview and sometimes fly I’m sure there were hundreds of pilots in the war eager
with some of the most interesting people in to become aces, but they didn’t necessarily get the
the aviation community. In this instance, chance because they were never able to
we’re talking about a legendary fighter pilot see the enemy during their tour.
named Charles Yeager, known to his friends as Yeager was in the right place one day
simply “Chuck.” over Europe and was such a natural fighter
A week before deadline for this pilot that he shot down five enemy
CROSS-COUNTRY LOG
issue of Plane & Pilot, we heard the sad aircraft in a single day, earning the
news that General Yeager had passed unusual distinction of becoming an
away at the age of 97. ace in a day.
Through the last 30 or so years, I’ve had interactions Not many pilots had the same opportunity to become
with General Yeager a dozen times, and we got along aces, much less do so in one day, but the young officer
pretty well, despite his undeserved reputation as a tough was often asked about that when he was working the
interviewee. I learned that if you treated him with respect lecture circuit many years later in conjunction with
for his accomplishments and didn’t try to exaggerate or release of his book, Yeager.
embellish his record, he was an easy pilot to get along The general commented that aerial gunnery wasn’t
with, and it was a very sad day to hear that he was no nearly as simple as the movies and television made it
longer with us. appear. The media often presented gun camera footage
Contrary to what you might imagine, Yeager was not that suggested most shootdowns of enemy aircraft were
a natural-born fighter pilot. made from directly behind the bad guys. “Late in the
He was raised in West Virginia, where his father taught war, the speed of the P-51 Mustang was a big advantage,
him the science of hunting and fishing. He was introduced and it did provide us with overtake in air-to-air combat
to firearms at an early age and became proficient with because we could usually catch the Messerschmitts and
their use and limitations. Focke-Wulfs,” said Yeager, “but an equally important
Yeager joined the Army early in World War II and factor was that many of our best pilots became experts
eventually volunteered for the Army Air Corps. at deflection shots.”
“I wasn’t a natural fighter pilot by any means,” Yeager If a target was maneuvering somewhere out in front
told me. “In fact, I got sick the first time I flew in a trainer.” of your airplane, and you could close in on him with a
Yeager understood machinery, however, and despite deflection shot, you could sometimes score a victory.
planeandpilotmag.com 37
CHUCK YEAGER 1923–2020
Long-range shooting was the most challenging because planes out of Edwards in the ’50s and was the first man
the lead needed to be greater for the munition to arrive at to exceed Mach 2.0. He also had more rocket experience
the moment the airplane flew into the aim point. You also than any other pilot in the world by 1960.
needed to remember to lead the target in three directions A few years before my flights with Yeager, Crossfield
if you were diving or climbing. Yeager emphasized the fact had the engine of his Cessna 210 overhauled at Victor
that machine gun fire drops at long range, so you had to Aviation in Palo Alto, California. I was Victor Sloan’s test
lead both vertically and horizontally to have any chance pilot on new engine installations at the time, and Victor
of hitting the target. insisted that I give Crossfield a checkout on the new engine
Predictably, General Yeager had a natural feel for any- installation. Scotty and I flew around the San Francisco
thing he flew, and when the war ended, he was assigned as Bay area for about an hour.
a test pilot to Edwards Air Force Base in California’s high While we were flying, Scotty told the following story
desert. Jet fighters were just being introduced at the time, involving himself and Yeager. Scotty had been assigned
and Yeager was one of the pilots leading the way toward to test the new North American F-100 Super Sabre at
Mach 1.0. Yeager did most of the test work on the Bell X-1 Edwards. Yeager had flown the airplane the previous
rocket plane. He had pushed the envelope out to about day, and he was supposed to brief Crossfield on its flight
Mach .97 and was scheduled to try for Mach 1.0. characteristics, but the briefing never happened because
On the night before his hoped-for supersonic flight, of schedule conflicts. The two pilots had a brief meeting
he and his wife, Glennis, were riding horses in the desert. before Crossfield’s flight, and Yeager cautioned Crossfield
Yeager’s horse threw him off, and the pilot wound up with about the braking system in the event of an engine failure
several broken ribs. and loss of hydraulics. Yeager mentioned that an engine
“
Bob Hoover, another pilot with a natu- failure would leave the airplane with only
ral feel for high-performance aircraft, was three pumps of the wheel brakes.
eager to fly the X-1, and Yeager knew if Crossfield said, “No problem,” flipped
he reported broken ribs to the flight sur-
geon, he’d be replaced on the X-1 flight
Dav Davenport through the preliminary flight manual
and took off.
by Hoover. of Piper was the The engine did catch fire directly over
The X-1’s cockpit was very small, and the base, and Scotty shut it down. The F-100
climbing in and out was difficult under general’s co-pilot on said the glide ratio was only 3:1, and the saf-
normal circumstances. Broken ribs made
it even tougher, but Yeager somehow man-
most of the legs in est idea was to point the airplane in a safe
direction and eject rather than try to land
aged to endure with help from his crew
chief and did break the speed of sound
the Piper Cheyenne dead-stick. Crossfield elected to stay with
the F-100 and land back at Edwards with
that day by flying at Mach 1.06.
I flew co-pilot for Yeager three times,
400, and he reported no problem. (For reference, most general
aviation airplanes have glide ratios of 10:1
twice in a Piper Cheyenne 400LS turbo- that Yeager flew the or better.)
prop during his book tour and once on a Scott touched down gently and decided
trip from Edwards AFB to Albuquerque, big Cheyenne as if to let the F-100 roll right back into its han-
New Mexico. I was surprised on the New
he’d been born in it. gar on the flightline. “As I approached the
”
Mexico trip in the Cessna 340 when Yeager hangar, I pumped the brakes three times,
turned to me before the engine started and and just as Yeager had promised, the bind-
said, “Bill, I don’t really know much about ers went to the floor on the fourth pump.
these little civilian airplanes, so if you have any sugges- The airplane rolled into the hangar very slowly but with
tions during our trip, don’t be afraid to speak up.” It goes no remaining braking action. The F-100 rolled to the end
without saying that Yeager flew the Cessna 340 like he was of the hangar, and the airplane’s pointed nose punched a
telepathically connected to the autopilot. hole in the aft hangar wall.”
Dav Davenport of Piper was the general’s co-pilot on After that, Crossfield wrote in his book, Always Another
most of the legs in the Piper Cheyenne 400, and he reported Dawn, “Yeager sometimes commented during his personal
that Yeager flew the big Cheyenne as if he’d been born in it. appearances that, ’The sonic wall was mine, but Crossfield
On that Cessna 340 trip to New Mexico, General Yeager broke thru the hangar wall.’”
and I discussed mutual friends and a variety of other Crossfield was killed a few years ago when his Cessna
subjects. We talked a little about the good-spirited rivalry 210 got caught in a severe thunderstorm over Georgia and
between the general and North American test pilot Scott was torn apart.
Crossfield. Scotty was famous for flying a number of rocket I was proud to call them both friends. PP
38 MARCH 2021 Ç Plane&PilotMARCH 2021 CHUCK YEAGER Supersonic Pioneer1923 –2020
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