Chuck Yeager
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2019-02-01

Chuck Yeager, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6185 / CC BY SA 3.0

#United_States_Air_Force_generals
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#Aviation_pioneers
#Aviation_history_of_the_United_States
#American_army_personnel_of_the_Vietnam_War
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#Collier_Trophy_recipients
#Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_recipients
#Recipients_of_the_Silver_Star
Chuck Yeager

Charles Elwood Yeager (; born , 1923) is a former United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight.

Yeager's career began in World War II 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 (the World War II USAAF equivalent to warrant 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. As the first human to officially break the sound barrier, on , 1947, he flew the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of (), for which he won both the Collier and Mackay trophies in 1948. He then went on to break several other speed and altitude records.

Yeager 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 many parts of the world, including the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Yeager was born , 1923, to farming parents Susie Mae (Sizemore) and Albert Hal Yeager in Myra, West Virginia, and graduated from high school in Hamlin, West Virginia, in June 1941. He had two brothers, Roy and Hal Jr., and two sisters, Doris Ann (accidentally killed at ...